Those Spanish Codes
by Carmabaeji - Lively Aria
Summary: Jack and Nina Archer visit Spain for their honeymoon. A little sun, sea, code keys and counter terrorism are all on the cards. This will be the Jack-whumping fic.
1. Walsh called

These Spanish Codes  
  
by Aria  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Fox, 24, or any related production companies, or people. I actually own very little, seeing as I'm a student, and am currently living off of my student loan.  
  
Rating: I guess it'll be a PG-13, and I'll put any terrible graphic violence or sex in another post with a higher rating.  
  
Authors Note: I may have sunburn at the moment. It's keeping me up by infiltrating my dreams, did any one ever think that maybe sunburn is a bizarre pink life form that's out to get me? I want to finish this story before 10-11pm airs in the UK, so any prodding would be appreciated. Once again, this is a Jack/Nina how they got together, and as promised, I will work some Jack-whumping into this fic, although I'm not sure exactly how yet!  
  
Summary: Antiphony Arms have a data disc, they have a code key, we want a data disc, we want a code key - it's a whole espionage thing.  
  
  
  
The particular flavour of bureaucracy that Division favoured meant that once a month, the district leaders spent two hours in their offices reading reports that had taken their chief of staffs nearly two days to prepare. These reports would be on the general activities of the agents working in their district of CTU, on their expenses for the month, on the agents' personal lives...  
  
Jack had breathed a sigh of relief that Nina had chosen not to submit a few choice discussions. She'd omitted their quarrels at the beginning of the month, and then the subsequent depression during which she'd gotten him to sign a completely blank sheet of paper, for no reason, other than to prove he was distracted.  
  
Jack turned over page thirty-three and moved onto thirty-four. He rubbed his eyes as he felt them begin to water in frustration, and was desperately thankful that the phone rang a few seconds later.  
  
Any normal person would have jumped at the intrusion of such a harsh sound into a previously silent work environment, but Jack wasn't disturbed, he pressed the speaker phone button and answered the call without even flinching or raising his eyes, or his attention from Nina's report. "Walsh just called," her voice sounded over the speaker.  
  
"What did he want?" The name Richard Walsh momentarily distracted him from his line of thought, and he glanced over at the phone, as though he could gauge its response from its features. Richard Walsh was a good colleague of his, he'd known him back when he was working undercover, and he had been the one who'd signed him to CTU. Jack owed Richard his life, a few times.  
  
"Don't know exactly." Nina's soft, uncertain voice resounded in the room, "Just said he wanted to see the two of us and would be in in less than twenty minutes."  
  
"Okay," Jack tried desperately to think of a few hunches to play. It always helped to be prepared, and whilst his unit was designed for counter- terrorism work, they worked in intelligence and pre-emptive strikes. He couldn't think of any major problems coming up in the next week, Fourth of July weekend had gone off without any major hitches. He tried not to let Nina know he couldn't think of anything. "Come up when he comes in." He said.  
  
He heard her reply. "Okay." And then the call light flicked off on his phone. It was unusual for Walsh to request that Nina be present in a meeting. He usually wanted Jack alone, or him and his entire staff. Walsh knew that anything he told Jack, unless specifically remarked as classified, was going to be told to Nina, it was essential to Jack's effectiveness, but never the less, he usually preferred to brief Jack alone.  
  
He took a moment to glance down at his second, seated at her desk, she was diligently working at her computer, no doubt already making notes on next month's torture device. Had he not only just spoken to her, he would never have known she'd just finished a phone call. He watched as Tony approached her desk, leaving a couple of stapled pages off to one side of the curve behind her, and then returned to the work he was doing at station 6, a multi-user, advanced technology desk, working his way into a highly encrypted bank account. Tony gave Nina a soulful look as he left, the same look he frequently gave her when she wasn't looking. Nina didn't notice Tony as he came and went, not pausing for a few moments, until she reached for her coffee cup, and realising it was empty, stood to get herself another. She glanced up at Jack's office momentarily, and they caught each other's eyes, and then both resolved to move on to other work.  
  
-24-  
  
Nina rounded her chair as she noticed Richard Walsh and his small entourage enter CTU. She took a step into the hallway, blocking his path to Jack's office and shook his hand. She'd already tapped the intercom, and told her superior "Walsh's here." As she'd seen the glass doors swish, but she hadn't waited for his answer to register. "Send him up." As she moved to make 'nice' with the man who so obviously disliked her.  
  
"Mr Walsh." She greeted him, shaking his hand and taking a few steps backwards until they reached the staircase.  
  
"Nina," he didn't look far enough down to see her head, evidently he didn't bend like that. "Are we ready?" He asked this as though he expected her to have to run off quickly with something to do.  
  
"Yes." She replied, noticing as pinky and perky took up positions at the foot of the stairs to Jack's office. She was sure that they were either decorative, or that they were less educated, less opinionated versions of what she was to Jack.  
  
"Then let's begin." Walsh lead the way up the stairs, walking at a hurried, yet dignified pace. Leaving her to trot behind him. When she caught up he'd pushed the door open to Jack's office, which was up from his seat and leaning over his desk to shake his superior's hand.  
  
"Richard." Jack greeted, smiling.  
  
"Jack." Richard returned the greeting, accepting his hand, giving Jack a look that she was sure he could interpret as a happy emotion, whilst she could only interpret it as some kind of dislike.  
  
"Shall we get to work?" Jack suggested, offering Richard a seat. Truth was, both men would normally prefer to stand whilst they spoke, but here it would have been awkward, so instead they chose to sit, both of them uneasy as to how their seat positions referred to their status. Nina waited for both of them to sit, before she took a place in on of Jack's guest chairs, she took a yellow legal pad off of Jack's desk, one she was sure was hers, and rested it on her knee, she didn't take a pen, although knew where she could get one, and waited for Richard to begin.  
  
"We recently received intelligence that states Antiphony Arms have received a number of documents encoded with the Dramhurst code key." Walsh began, resting a hand on his knee; he spoke primarily to Jack, which allowed Nina to give Jack a meaningful glance. They'd spoken about this before. Everyone else briefed the two of them, Walsh preferred to brief Jack alone, initially at least. She wondered if it was because of Jack that she was included in this briefing. Jack couldn't obviously respond to her, but she knew she'd gotten her point across to him.  
  
"Do they have the code key?" Nina interjected, wanting to contribute to the briefing. She realised that this was obviously important if it had been bought to Jack, but she also knew that it was unlikely that the Antiphony Arms, a separatist union, based in Southern Spain, would have the means to decode these texts, and that bought them time.  
  
"They've had it for sometime, we're just not sure that they realise what it is." Richard took a moment to gauge her reaction, which was evident from her face, and then continued on. "What we want you to do is to go to Spain, bring back the computer files, and bring back the original copy of the Dramhurst key."  
  
Jack glanced over at Nina, who looked over at him at exactly the same time, acceptance, not that they had a choice, but both saw that the other was willing to go. "When do we leave?" Jack asked, moving his hands away from Nina's report on his desk.  
  
"The next flight to Malaga is at three am, you have three hours to review the dossiers on your alter egos." Richard said. Both had to bite back their tongues to avoid complaining about the complete lack of notice. "We can't afford to have you discovered, my agents have packed you both suitcases, and made you hotel reservations and booked your flights under an alias. If US customs asks, you are a married couple going away for a few weeks. You can not take the information my men will give you with you, you must know everything about it before you go to the airport."  
  
Nina nodded slowly. Richard didn't have to see Jack's reaction, this wasn't a mission Jack could choose to accept, and this was a mission he had to do. "I'll have my agents bring you the dossiers and travel documents, if you have any questions, ask them, one of them will take you to the airport."  
  
Nina stood, normally she'd just leave, but with Walsh there, she had to ask permission. "I need to sort out a few things before we go." She told Jack.  
  
"Replacements will be sent in to cover your positions." Wash supplied.  
  
"I know that, there's just a few personal things that I..."  
  
"Go." Jack said to her, and she quickly departed, letting the glass door shut behind her.  
  
Walsh watched the magnet seal engage, and then waited for her head to disappear down the stairs before he started. "Do you think she can do this?" He asked, leaning back in his chair, raising his hands to the armrest.  
  
"Yeah." Jack said, nodding.  
  
"She's only done short stints of undercover work, nothing of this scale." Richard stood and walked over behind Jack's desk, only for a moment, to nod to one of his agents down stairs before returning to his seat.  
  
"Can she handle it? Definitely. I'll make sure of it." Jack told him, absolutely sure of his agent's abilities. "Don't believe what Mason says about her, he's just resentful because..." They both knew Mason only seemed to respect women under his command if they slept with him, but Jack didn't need to say it out loud. "She's a good agent, Richard."  
  
"You'd better be sure, Jack, because if Antiphony Arms break your cover, they'll kill you on the spot." Richard warned, standing once again from his chair, and making his way to the exit.  
  
Jack stood and walked over to Richard before he made the door. "Richard, these documents..."  
  
"Our undercover agents in Serbia, in Iran, in Afghanistan, our British allies undercover in Kashmir, the list is endless, Jack, some of whom I can't even tell you about." Richard revealed. He opened the door as he finished, and made his way down the steps. One of his agents had already gone off somewhere, and the other accompanied him back out the helipad.  
  
-24-  
  
Nina returned to him as she twisted the cap off of a bottle of water. The mineral water, despite being bought in the departure lounge was probably two dollars more expensive than elsewhere in the country. Duty free didn't mean the companies we're allowed to over price their goods. He was thirsty too, but one of them had to sit with their bags, and as far as asking favours of Nina went, he wasn't sure if calling her 'honey' would get him a bottle of water or a kick in the balls.  
  
She stood in front of him for a moment as she drained the entire bottle in one long gulp. Jack had sent a long email to Kim, wishing her good luck in her exams, whilst he'd sent a short email to Teri hoping to see a new exhibit in her gallery when he got back. He didn't have time to call, and it was late at night now, he'd sooner not wake them.  
  
"We boarding yet?" He asked her. She'd stood in front of the monitors for a few moments before she bought her drink, and he couldn't see that far across the lounge. He watched as she collected a few things that had spilled from her bag in her absence, tucked them away, and placed them on the floor before she sat and answered him.  
  
"Not our seats yet, they're boarding people with children." Jack nodded slowly and picked at a few loose fibres in his trouser leg. Nina watched him for a moment, and then pressed a few fingers lightly on his wrist. "You okay?"  
  
"Fine." He replied, brushing the tearing strands flat on his leg and then moving his arm to the arm rest, Nina's hand moved to the side and he caught her fingers, he squeezed them, and it took her a moment to realise he wanted to hold her hand. She shifted in her seat to lean against his shoulder.  
  
"I paint." She whispered, as she watched a group of kids run past them. "Apparently it's my great passion in life, I even have canvas in my bag." She whispered to him. On the canvas were the plans to the building they believed the computer documents to be in. They'd been painted on by an ink containing cobalt. It oxidised in air to give a colourless compound of cobalt, but it could be reduced again, using another bottle of ink she had, containing a stronger oxidising agent than cobalt, which would turn the ink back to its natural colour.  
  
Jack took her left hand as she spoke, moving it across his seat and into his left hand, where he examined her ring again. It wasn't an unusual thing for someone to do, he could recall countless times he'd spent playing with Teri's ring on her finger. It was a way of drawing attention to it, of pointing out to everyone, 'she's mine'. Only this time he wanted to see what the FBI had given them, what sort of rings busted drug lords gave their girlfriends. He raised it to his face a little, and rotated it, turning the ring on her finger. Nina didn't seem bothered, glancing around the airport and carefully watching the people around them, "What's yours?" She whispered.  
  
"I don't think I really have a hobby," he muttered to her. Whilst they'd studied their files together in his office, it had taken them a full three hours to make it through; they hadn't had time to get to know each other's characters. "I'm an investment banker, high net worth, I own a boat but it's harboured in LA."  
  
"A boat?" Nina queried, she tried not to fidget as Jack stroked her hand, instead raised her head from his shoulder, creating a little more distance between them. "Do you know how to sail?"  
  
"Yes, a yacht, and yeah, I learnt a mission a while back." Jack contributed, the tannoy system came on, and he half focused on the announcement as she spoke.  
  
"Do you think that'll come in handy?" She asked him, rising as she heard their seat numbers called out. She took 'her' handbag from the floor and passed him a shopping bag with three papers in it, the Economist, the Independent and the Los Angeles Herald.  
  
Jack stood next to her, collecting her almost empty bottle from the chair arm and downing what little was left of the water. He waited as she rooted around inside the bag to find their boarding passes and passports, and caught a glance at the ring, he realised, belatedly, that all the time he'd spent examining the ring had really been spent examining the texture of her finger. 


	2. Rendezvous

-24-  
  
"Mr and Mrs Archer?" Asked a flight attendant, approaching just as Nina passed Jack the arts section of the LA Herald. They were nearly an hour into their flight, and having already had their peanuts and their first drink they weren't sure what the woman could want. They were being periodically asked if they required anything to drink, eat or do by the first class attendants, but they hadn't been called by name yet.  
  
"Yes?" Nina replied, as Jack flicked through the pages of the arts section, glancing up occasionally to look at the waitress and across at Nina.  
  
"I'm sorry," the woman began. "This is compliments from the airline, congratulations on your wedding, have a lovely honeymoon." The airhostess handed them a bottle of champagne tied with a few curly streamers, it was decent champagne too, Nina was surprised, she held the bottle so Jack could glance at the label, and then held it over the armrest. "Would you like me to open it now?" The woman offered.  
  
Nina raised her eyebrows at Jack and he considered the option, they were thirteen hours from Spain, what harm could it do to have a few drinks now? He nodded at Nina, and replied to the hostess. "Why not?"  
  
She wandered off just as he made his way to the upcoming events section in the LA Herald. He held the page open and showed Nina the excerpt on his wife's gallery, opening a new event this weekend, the Herald claimed that the painter she was exhibiting had to be fabulous, because Teri Bauer's choice of artist was always spot on, and the exhibit was sure to make a few million for the gallery and the artist. Nina skimmed the article as he held it open for her to read. "She must be annoyed that you won't be there on opening night." She whispered to him.  
  
Jack hadn't told Nina about the separation, and Teri had made no attempt to invite him to the gallery opening, merely mentioning it in passing whenever he saw Kim. "Yeah." He answered, nodding grimly. It earned him a searching, suspicious look from Nina, which she quickly had to wipe when the airhostess returned with a glass of champagne each, and a tray table with the champagne on that she fixed to Jack's armrest. Jack passed Nina her glass and gave her a large false smile, "to us." He said, as a toast, and chinked glasses with her, before taking a sip of champagne.  
  
Nina waited until the waitress had left before she took a sip of her champagne. This was their honeymoon. Supposedly they'd married three months ago, but had been unable to take any time out from work until now, when they'd decided to spend sometime in Spain. Their tickets were open ended, allowing them to spend as much, or as little time in the country as necessary.  
  
Jack caught a glance of the wedding and engagement ring as she sipped her glass. Both were thin gold, matching his own, that he wore, and the engagement ring had a nicely sized diamond in the centre of it. He recalled from his earlier inspection that the engagement ring was a little large for her finger, hence explaining why she wore it closer to her hand; the wedding band gave it some support. Nina ran a finger across her ring finger, she'd done that periodically over the last few hours, it wasn't vanity, or even to call attention to it and point out that she was unavailable, it was simply because she wasn't used to it.  
  
-24-  
  
"I don't know who the informant is, but he'll make contact with you during dinner." Jack's voice resounded from the bathroom, he'd left the door open for a minute so she could hear him whilst he dressed ready for dinner, leaving Nina with the bedroom to change in. They hadn't even considered who would sleep where, right now, they were jet lagged and exhausted, but a rendezvous had been planned with their informant tonight, and so they had to go.  
  
Nina dragged her cotton polo shirt over her forehead as she listened to his words. She bypassed the ice bucket and unzipped the suitcase that Walsh's agents had packed for her. Sometimes CTU was completely paranoid, what were the chances that their suitcases would get checked by a treacherous customs worker, or that they'd blow their cover significantly that if anyone was looking at them, they'd check their hotel room? She hoped they'd packed enough clothing for them, and that it was the right size. Nina lifted a stack of shirts out of the suitcase and spotted a large mass of black shiny material, deciding she would wear that, whatever it was, she unzipped her skirt and let it drop to the floor, and grabbed the shiny material and pulled it quickly over her head.  
  
She had been right; it was a black dress, knee length, with a slash neckline, that was almost her size. She went to the mirror to adjust the neck, which had decided to wrap itself awkwardly around her chest. "These are yours, wear them tonight." Jack had come through from the bathroom at some point when she'd had the dress over her head. He presented her with a small square velvet box, leaving it on the dresser table.  
  
Nina caught Jack's torso in the mirror an turned in time to see his naked back retreating back into the bathroom. Nina had never really like tattoos, but she loved the ones that wound round Jack's upper arms, probably because, unlike a few men of his age that Nina knew, his arms were well toned. So was his stomach and chest, as she was along that train of thought. She had to shake her head to rid herself of thoughts about his arse as she fixed the collar of the dress and ran her fingers through her hair.  
  
He was married, he was her boss, and even if he wasn't either of those things, he was nearly ten years older than her. She patted down her face with powder and checked her watch; they had to get a move on. She put the first earring in as she made her way over to the bathroom, fitting the second as she stood in the doorway and waited for Jack to pull his shirt on.  
  
He noticed her in the mirror as he shrugged the sleeves over his shoulders, "Am I making us late?" He asked, hurried buttoning the brown shirt closed.  
  
Nina slid the back on the earring and leant against the doorframe. "No, we've got some time." She fingered the earrings carefully, whilst Jack passed her a small mirror that had been inside his suitcase. She flipped it open and checked the earrings in it as he tucked his shirt into his trousers.  
  
The earrings flashed red in the mirror at two-second intervals. They contained a small infrared transmitter, and their informant was going to be wearing infrared capable contact lenses, made of the material the compact had been coated in. "They're working." Nina told him as she shut the mirror, and waited for him to turn to leave.  
  
Jack caught his breath for a moment when he looked at her. She looked wonderful, the black dress looked lovely with her hair, and the earrings really showed off the blue in her eyes, making them seem to sparkle with light. He shook off his thoughts and pushed past her into the main room, narrowly avoiding the ice bucket and champagne as he did so. Why was it so important to CTU that everyone think they were newly weds? Whilst it did ensure the bed was extra large, it also meant that they only had the one.  
  
Nina followed him out of the bathroom, and collected a shawl she'd found earlier and their room key. "Do you have your wallet?" She asked, checking before they left the hotel room.  
  
Jack patted his back trouser pocket. "Yeah...shall we go?"  
  
-24-  
  
"Can I have a look at your wallet?" Nina was curious as to how much research had been done into their alter egos, how much effort CTU had put into their cover. She was often amazed how careful their cover was designed, and how much revision you had to do of your 'character' profile. Jack slipped the thin black leather wallet out of his back trouser pocket and passed it across the table to Nina.  
  
She hadn't brought her character's wallet out with her, but it was almost empty - a few dollar notes and several credit cards, which fitted with the psychological profile she'd been given. Her character was a big spender, light thinker, she only needed enough cash to pay for her parking whilst out shopping - the drinks would be on the store.  
  
Jack's wallet was decidedly thicker. His character had credit cards with many well-known banks, and they wouldn't have a problem paying here, he had a MasterCard and visa, the only useful cards in Europe. There were a few large note pesetas, and a couple of photos, Nina was surprised to see a photograph of the two of them hugging in swimming costumes. She held it out to him. "Doctored." Jack pointed out, as the optioned hadn't occurred to her. She took a closer look, and the image of Jack seemed real, but the head on the photo was the same image as her federal id. The photo was astoundingly well made.  
  
She slotted the photo back into his wallet and placed it next to the bread dish as the waiter returned with their drinks, a glass of red wine, and a twelve year old scotch. Jack collected it quickly and slid it into his back pocket again. They had to make small talk for all of dinner, and neither had any idea what to say that wasn't related to CTU, they'd already talked the menu to death. The only other boring conversational topic either could think of was "It's about the same temperature here as in LA."  
  
Both of them were absorbed in laughter as they realised that, without work, they were reduced to talking about the weather. It took a moment for them to recover, and then the waiter reappeared, asking for their choice in main course. They'd ordered their starters earlier, as per their instructions. They were reasonably sure that their informant was a member of the kitchen staff, or the waiting staff, but they couldn't rule out the people on the nearby tables either.  
  
Their instructions for tonight weren't as simple as they thought. Their food had been chosen by their informant, who had dictated the dishes by numbers, in Nina's case it was Planck's constant, 6.6261 by ten to the minus thirty four joule seconds. The sixth red wine, the second starter, the sixth main course, and the first desert. Jack had pi, the ratio of a circles circumference and it's diameter. 3.1415926...He had chosen the third scotch, first starter, fourth main course and was sharing the first desert with Nina, it was convenient their numbers coincided.  
  
-24-  
  
By the end of the dinner, their informant still hadn't made himself known. Nina had taken six trips to the ladies room, lingering in the corridor enroute, she was sure people were beginning to wonder if she had bladder problems. Now, as they waited for the bill, she was returning from the first real trip to the ladies room all night. She'd examined a photo off to the side of the restaurant, in a reasonably shelter section, and eventually made her way back to the table.  
  
Jack watched her returning from the corner of the room, only to receive a look that he knew meant she'd been unsuccessful, he sighed before she reached the table, at exactly the same time as the waiter, and took her seat.  
  
He was presented with the processed credit card receipt for tonight's dinner, and checked the amount briefly before signing and adding in another 1400 pesetas as a tip. He signed paper Jack Archer, not entirely sure if his signature was the same as the back of the card. The waiter seemed satisfied, and collected his paper, wandering off to re-enter the receipt with his tip on it.  
  
"So, we're sitting here for a few minutes after we get the bill?" Jack asked rhetorically, scratching his eyebrow. He was thoroughly exhausted, including work yesterday, he'd been awake nearly forty hours, excluding the few minutes he'd managed to grab on the plane before his body realised how uncomfortable he was.  
  
Nina had been up just as long, but she coped by shaking out her arms like she was having a seizure, and occasionally slapping her cheeks. He thought it was hilarious, but her eyes rarely lowered, and she never leant back on her chair, wanting to fall asleep against the wood.  
  
The waiter came back with the bill and Jack collected the receipt as Nina collected a chocolate off the tray. A tiny piece of black chocolate wrapped in gold foil that she sliced open neatly with her nail and then popped into her mouth. She folded the paper back carefully and took the other two pieces of chocolate off the dish, "I'm exhausted, shall we go back to the hotel?"  
  
Nina was stood from the table, collecting her wrap from the chair and clutching something in her hands. He rose, trusting she hadn't forgotten their plans for the evening, and took their room key off the table. They made their way to the exit; smiling at the waiters and waitresses they passed who wished them a pleasant evening. They took a few steps away from the restaurant entrance and back towards the hotel. "I take it you got it."  
  
"I got it." Nina smiled at him. 


	3. The Malero building

Nina shook her head to get the wet hair out of her eyes. She folded her leg beneath her as she sat down on the bed, stirring the deep purple liquid with a thin paintbrush. In the room next door she heard the water shut off, followed by the sound of footsteps on the tile floor. She adjusted the paper on the bed sheet and then took the paintbrush out of the pot, letting any excess liquid run down the side of the cup before she raised it to the brim and started painting the paper.  
  
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the bathroom door open and Jack pad towards his suitcase. One of the hotel's pristinely white towels was wrapped low on his waist and she had to remind herself not to glance over at him. He walked behind her just as she lowered the brush to the page, and when she'd finished the first stroke he was back in the bathroom, having collected his clothes.  
  
She'd finished painting the entire sheet when Jack settled in front of her on the bed, dressed in a pair of loose pyjama bottoms. "Don't think they packed me a t-shirt..." He muttered as an explanation, without being asked, "...How's it going?"  
  
The oxidising agent was already working away at the paper, leaving the dark green outline of the building on the paper, plans to the building. The purple colour was fading to a pale pink, and the Cobalt was rapidly changing colour. They'd seen drawings of the building before, but they still needed one to reference from whilst making their final plan.  
  
"Shouldn't be much longer, just needs to dry a bit."  
  
Jack nodded, and collected the empty gold foil wrappers that had once contained chocolate. Inside each one were tiny notes on the building, security codes and room codes. Nina had unwrapped the chocolates and set them on a plate on the bed, she'd left the chocolate, which surprised him, as she reached for one before he'd even realised they were there.  
  
He wasn't going to give her time to rethink it, and collected one of the chocolates off the tray and ate it, wiping his hands free of any melted chocolate before he read the inside of the wrappers. "Have you worked the correlation yet?" He asked her.  
  
Nina gave him a veiled look as she stood from the bed, going to the sink to rinse off the paintbrush and mixing tray, "You take four and a half minutes to shower." She gave as her sole response.  
  
Jack ignored her comments and grabbed some of the hotel notepaper from the nightstand. He tore off the top page and turned the notepad over to rest on the leather back, easily impressionable, and easy to place a coaster on and remove any handwriting indentations. He copied the numbers off the wrapper, holding them by the corners as Nina started on the second piece of canvas.  
  
He'd offered her some clothes pegs that were in his case to hang them up with, but she'd waved him off, hanging them up might cause the paint to run. Nina left the second page on the bed and collected the first on a towel, taking it into the bathroom. It wasn't long before he heard a hair dryer, and poked his head round the corner to see her drying the paper with the odd burst of hot air.  
  
The alphanumeric combinations on the chocolate wrappers were entry codes, computer file numbers, and passwords. All of them to the Malero building.  
  
The Malero building was a bit of an odyssey to CTU agents. A pantheon to terrorism experts around the world. Juave Malero was an old man now, but his legacy lived on. He had, at one time or another, been connected to most criminal networks around the globe, either as a supplier or as a member. He'd built his financial empire during the fascist rule of Spain, and his children had survived the rebellious nature of their generation through home schooling and boarding school. His daughter, Esthero Valez, was now in her sixties, and had the distinguished honour of being the first female on the FBI's most wanted list.  
  
The building housed a computer security system; it was where you took information if you never wanted anyone else to get to it, unfortunately, Malero also kept the list of his associates in here. A concrete link between Malero and his criminal colleagues had never been proved, and retrieving these files, together with the other, meager snippets of information would put this man behind bars for good.  
  
He watched as she settled onto the bed, curling a leg up underneath her to begin on the second page. Most the clothing that had been selected for him had been too tight for his taste, and it looked like Nina's were too loose. She was wearing a pair of stripy drawstring trousers and a camisole, both of which were far too big, the trousers had huge bunches on them, from where she'd tightened the cord far more than was expected, and the camisole was adjusted every few seconds, obviously uncomfortable for her.  
  
He looked down at the piece of paper in front of him. They knew that the outer doors required an iris scan, a living one, and it would be logged into the computer system. The inner doors, those nearer the centre of the building, were more complicated, requiring a magnetic key, like the swipe cards they used at CTU, but they had no magnetic scanner or programmer, just huge long streams of numbers. Hidden somewhere inside the streams were the four figure directions they had, three telling them door number, and one odd or even, as a check.  
  
By the time he'd written all the numbers down on the paper, Nina had brought the first sheet back from the bathroom. She touched a finger to the paint, checking to see if it was dry, when she was satisfied she grabbed a hotel pen and made a dot in the corner of the page. "So this is our entrance door, it's furthest from the secure files, and is only guarded during office hours when it's propped open." Jack knelt forward and placed the pen and pad on the bed bedside him, eager to look at something comprehensible.  
  
"Right," agreed Nina, "it's the employee entrance." She remembered this from the briefing. "So we need a guard's iris scan. Which entrance can we pinch a guard from?"  
  
She had a mischievous smile on her face; pinch a guard, like he would be 'right back'. He let out a soft snort of laughter, and leant even further over. The employee entrance was right at the other end of the paper, near Nina's knees. He noticed a second entrance and taped the page. "What about here? As I recall, the satellite photos rarely showed two guards here."  
  
"And it's close to the employee entrance, less distance to get caught in." Jack nodded at her comment. "How are those codes going?" She asked him. "The code is the first step."  
  
He collected the note pad off the bed as she pushed the paper to one side; she took the pages from him, and began to read down the list. "It's nonstop, I can't figure out which parts are codes and which are directions."  
  
Nina nodded as she turned the pages over. "Where does it start?" She asked before she noticed the page numbers in the corner.  
  
Jack didn't point it out to her, waiting for the quiet 'ah' and then for her to turn back to page one. "Well lets think about this...it'll go code for the outside door and from then on room number, then code, and the room number is what?"  
  
"A sequence of three digits, ending in an two even if the room is on the left, and with a fourth to make it divisible by eleven." Jack recited, almost exactly as Walsh had done. He could imagine the greying, older man pacing his office as he spoke.  
  
Nina nodded slowly, scratching the side of her cheek. She pulled the dry map closer, running a finger along the edge of the building. "...Which has to be on the left..." She announced.  
  
Jack scowled. "Why?"  
  
"Stairs to offices, visitors bathroom, break room, ladies, gents..." She continued along the corridor, labeling each room on the right in turn, several had two doors, until she reached the end of the building."  
  
"So we're looking for a two even numbers, in a group of three..."  
  
"...Divisible by eleven." Nina put the pages down on the bed between them, so they both had to tilt their heads to see it. "There...4729" She read aloud.  
  
"Now all we need is a calculator." Jack muttered under his breath.  
  
"No...if something's divisible by eleven, it's digits...no, it's not...what's the next one?"  
  
Jack scanned the page further down, he eventually found another pair of even numbers, about thirty numbers into the string of code. "3225?" He ventured.  
  
"No." Nina told him quickly, "next?"  
  
"4675...How are you doing this?"  
  
"A number is divisible by eleven if the alternate numbers add up to the same value." Nina told him. "What was that number again?"  
  
It took him a moment to find the number again, "4675."  
  
"That's it."  
  
"That's our code?"  
  
She nodded. Jack took her discarded pen and drew lines around the code block. He'd set the numbers out in blocks so they were easy to count. "Each magnetic door key is 42 digits long." Jack grimaced at the thought of entering the digits into the door under pressure. His hand was bound to slip, and there were only two chances before the alarm went off.  
  
Nina took the pen from him and counted forty-two numbers after the end of the door number. "This should be our next door." Nina said, circling four numbers.  
  
Jack nodded, "5241....On the left, and...divisible by eleven."  
  
The pages of numbers didn't seem quite so confusing now. He let Nina work though the rest of the papers and pulled the map over to look at. He tried to plot possible routes from the doors as Nina told them to him, the plans must have been incomplete, and it looked like they would walk off the end of the building. "We're not worried about video cameras?" Nina asked.  
  
"Not inside."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"The information people send to be stored in here has never been photographed or..."  
  
"Right."  
  
-24-  
  
The Malero building wasn't as impressive at night as it was during the day. Tiny red lights sat on the corners of the building, warning passing aircraft that they couldn't fly through the black body between them. In LA the building would have been lit from below, from the balconies and the flowerbeds with sodium vapour lights. But they couldn't afford that. If anyone on the outside figured out what was on the other side of these seemingly glass windows, there'd be problems for the company.  
  
Jack pressed his back up against the brick wall outside the Malero's property. Behind him, he heard Nina do the same, and reached over to her. She handed him a small night vision telescope, he quietly thanked her, and placed the small implement to his right eye.  
  
He looked across the driveway. The corporate insignia was displayed four foot high on the grass island, surrounded by green shrubs and brightly coloured, by day, flora. It would make useful cover. Jack trailed the telescope up to the building. The trees either side of the parking lot would provide a modicum of cover from the security guards. He checked the four forwards facing security cameras, two facing the other direction, two facing this way. He watched quietly as they rotated, looking over the green, the few cars and shrubbery, and then back again. "Nina, if we run together, on my mark, to the island, we can move before the cameras move."  
  
He didn't turn to look at her, keeping an eye on the cameras and checking no guards ventured into his vision. He heard her mutter her agreement, and felt her moved closer, and then as the second pair of cameras rotated in the opposite directions. "Go."  
  
As fast as they could, Nina and Jack sprinted across the car park, ducking as they reached the sign and squatting on the damp grass. Next to Jack the sprinkler started up again, and he moved to block its path from Nina, who was carrying most of the electronic equipment.  
  
He bent the infrared telescope in the middle, changing it to a periscope, and checked for the position of the security cameras now. They were following their original paths still, but a security guard walked across the front of the building. Jack moved along, he rustled a few leaves, but he managed to hide the end of the periscope in the bush. The security guard walked away, having completed his loop.  
  
The best place to run to, from here, seemed to be the flowerbeds directly underneath two of the cameras. Jack considered the positions of the cameras and led Nina towards the bushes. There were trees and some more dense foliage here, and it was much easier to make the hundred yard walk to the next entrance.  
  
They squatted behind a short, well trimmed, weed infested bush, and peered out at the security guard. He was leaning back against the wall, cupping a cigarette and lighter in his hands. Nina pulled the dart gun out of her pack and unwrapped the trigger. Jack had a small case of darts in his trousers pocket, and pulled them out, opening the container with a strangely loud click.  
  
The both peeked out at the guard, who gave no indication he'd heard.  
  
Jack slotted a dart into the firing chamber of the gun, poking the end in with a narrow piece of plastic tubing. When the feathers were far enough from the end of the tube he closed the back of his weapon, and peered out at the guard, checking for any other men, just as the camera moved the other way.  
  
He raised an eyebrow at Nina, as she dropped her bag to the floor, and clutched the few things she needed. She nodded to him, acknowledging his silent question. Her signal was when the guard dropped.  
  
Jack glanced up at the sole camera that gave an image of their position. Two more seconds and it would be turned, only just enough so it had half a rotation to it's extreme position and then half back before they would be discovered. He aimed for the guard's thigh, the dart soaring through the air, leaving a whistling sound in its wake. The guard cried out as he clutched the dart, pulling it from his leg, only to drop to the ground soon after.  
  
Nina jumped over the bush and headed to the camera, glancing down at the wires and computer equipment in her hands as she waited for Jack to check the guard. She noticed it turning, "Jack." She whispered, calling him over.  
  
He nodded, and rushed over, hoisting her up unceremoniously. She gripped either side of the camera to steady herself, hoping that Jack's hands, which kept moving into various positions around her thighs, would hold.  
  
She slotted the little metal crowbar under the white cover of camera and delivered a fast blow to the edge of the bar. The white metal buckled under the stress, and the crowbar flipped and fell, narrowly missing Jack. "Nina." He hissed, and she ignored him. She tugged a handful of wiring out the way, just as the camera began to move again.  
  
"Shit!" She exclaimed, as she shifted along the wall. She unwound the wires from the computer board she held, and took the two simple croc clips. There were seven wires leading off from the camera, she traced each one with her eyes until she glanced at the wires in the wall, realising only two ended there she shoved the croc clips around it and hurriedly grappled for her wire cutters in her trouser pocket. Another feet degrees, and whoever was watching the security camera would see the guard. She gave up with fumbling with the zipper, and gripped the wires connecting to the camera.  
  
One swift tug and they were set.  
  
She tapped Jack's arm twice to indicate she wanted to be let down, and he slowly lowered her to the ground. He slid her down his body to break her fall, and she sucked in a sudden breath at the contact. Jack stared at her awkwardly as she landed.  
  
Nina pursed her lips and glanced at his shoulder, intending to look towards the fallen guard. "Shall we?" She ventured.  
  
Jack turned and glanced at the guard and then back at Nina, for a minute he lost himself, his body still tingling from the sensation of having her perfect body sliding down his, and holding onto her by her thighs for so long. "Yeah..." then realising what he was saying, he snapped into action, muttering 'yeah' under his breath again as he squatted next the guard ready to hoist him over his shoulder. 


	4. The Malero building II

Jack dropped the security guard from the fireman's hold onto the floor next to the employee entrance, onto the thin concrete verge so the man's limp legs landed on the grass. Jack sniffed loudly. Across to his left the security camera moved from side to side, seemingly performing its intended task, but he could make out its snapped cover hanging limply, and a bundle of dangling wires.  
  
Across to his right Nina was knelt in front of the door, having slipped a folded piece of card into the mouth of the magnetic scanner, she was keying in the forty something digit number that was the door key. "There's no zero." She muttered.  
  
"What?" asked Jack, stepping over the guard to get to her.  
  
"There's no zero." She said again, holding the paper with the code on it. Her thumb was under the zero she had to input, and her other hand was poised over the laminated controls.  
  
"What?" He queried again, scanning the control panel "Skip it." He finally ordered, agitated, and waited for her to input the last set of controls. He moved back to the security guard and bent down, lifting the heavy man over his shoulder.  
  
Nina finished inputting the code and the panel asked her for a retinal scan. She moved out of the way, flipping open the cover to the iris scanner, as Jack hoisted the security guard and propped him against the door, he gripped a fistful of his hair and pulled his head back enough for the scanner to see his eye.  
  
The scanner flashed green and then the door mechanism let out a harmonious tone, indicating it had clicked open. Nina rounded Jack and pushed the door, it opened easily. Jack gave the walkway outside a quick check before he tugged the security guard inside.  
  
Nina began walking off down the corridor while Jack carefully positioned the security guard up against the wall, out of the view of anyone looking through the narrow window in the door. "This is the door." She said, and began opening the first door in their maze trail.  
  
-24-  
  
"This is the last door code I have, so it'd better be behind this one." Nina muttered as they walked down the corridor, shining torchlight on each door number in turn.  
  
Jack glanced over at the pages he'd copied out yesterday, now, copied at one am. It was probably a little past midnight, but he hadn't had long to adjust to Spanish time yet, and being up for a day or more in a row was hardly a feat for him.  
  
Nina, on the other hand, had managed to switch to the Spanish time at some point last night. She'd been awake at ten the next morning, when she'd accidentally awoken him, apologising, saying that she'd been unable to sleep anymore, body clock and all. She was a little tired and a little tense, she'd rolled the papers up not long after they'd memorised the number and was shaking it in her hands.  
  
"This one." Jack said, as his torchlight hit the door number, 135. On the left. Next to him he heard Nina let out a sigh, and slide the piece of card out of her pants. She was getting bored, it had taken them at least fifteen doors to get to where they were now, and her fingers were probably getting pads on them by now.  
  
He watched as she forced the folded card into the slot, waiting for it to start scanning and then keying a code in. "Why do you have to put the card in?" He asked, leaning against the other side of the doorway, squatting down so his head was level with the control.  
  
"When the scanner starts it opens up the diagnostic mechanisms, I can input the code and tell it it came from the key." Nina explained as she unrolled the key code sheet, and began with the number. Jack watched, sympathetically as she pressed a hand to her forehead between numbers.  
  
"Why don't you let me do that?" He offered, taking the sheet.  
  
Nina glanced at him, surprised. "You sure?"  
  
"Yeah." He reached out an arm and took the paper from her hand. He made his way past her, and squatted down. "Where did you get to?" He asked, as she pointed it out the fourth digit.  
  
Nina watched as Jack pressed each of the numbers on the page. She'd thought that it took a long time to input it when she'd been doing it herself, watching Jack, it seemed to last an eternity. She pressed her back against the door they wanted to open, making sure not to put too much pressure on the door. She arched her back, and reached a hand behind her to rub the lower spinal disks. Several quick glances at Jack later, she shone her torch off down the corridor in either direction. "We must have walked for longer than...what scale was the map, do you remember?"  
  
"I doubt the map was complete, I think we're inside the mountain now." Jack commented to her.  
  
The Malero building backed onto a mountain. They hadn't seen the back of it, but it was a fair bet that, had they been giving satellite shots, the building wouldn't have ended before the rock face. Nina blew a stray tuft of hair out of her eyes. "That gallery opening was tonight, wasn't it?" Nina commented, thinking through the large amount of information that was layered in her head. There was no way he could get back in time, but there was a chance that he could call Teri before hand, maybe wish her luck. He'd just have to use a payphone and have it put through secure channels at CTU.  
  
"What?" asked Jack, momentarily looking over at her. He had heard what she'd said, but he wasn't sure that she meant to get an answer.  
  
"The gallery opening..." She was interrupted as the door chimed melodically, he'd completed inputting the code and it was correct. She rose to her feet and pressed a hand against the door. It moved aside and opened to a large dark cavern.  
  
Fluorescent lights sputtered several times before they came on. Nina took a cautious step inside, moving over a little to allow Jack to step in behind her. The central archive room was huge. Painted white, it was a cube, each side a hundred and fifty feet. It was larger than CTU, and the height of the room was spanned by huge storage shelves, filled with rows upon rows of removable hard drives, billions of bytes.  
  
There were two computers in the centre of the room, placed face to face, one chair, and a circular desk. Jack peeled the huge Velcro strip off from around his watch and check the display, it was the first time he'd checked all evening. "Codes change in twenty minutes." He told Nina.  
  
He'd only just finished his sentence when she sprinted towards the central island, jumping over the edge of the desk and sliding into the central seat. She tapped a key on the computer, bringing it from its screen saver, brandishing the company name, to a log in screen. In the desk a magnetic scanner opened beside her elbow, and she took the papers from Jack. They didn't have a key code.  
  
An options screen opened on the computer and she selected 'manual'. The computer provided her with a prompt to input, what they hoped, would be the code to give them access.  
  
This one was alphanumeric, twenty digits long, and Nina input it as fast as she could, glancing over occasionally at the door and Jack, who was reading the information printed on the end of each row of hard drives.  
  
The computer chimed, and entered the main screen, there were images - icons across the top of the screen, and a panel at the side with a list of options on. It obviously wasn't a Microsoft based operating system, nor was it easily recognisable, most likely it was specially designed, like the computer systems at CTU.  
  
Jack moved back over, hovering near her shoulder. He was satisfied the room was secure. "What's wrong?"  
  
"I have the file name, I just don't know how to get it." She was having a momentary lapse in her Spanish. She was usually better under pressure than this.  
  
"Find in Spanish?" He smiled at her.  
  
"Mmm." She glanced at his reflection in the darker parts of the screen. "I obviously don't spent enough time with Tony...or Jamey." She brought up one of the sidebars, and glanced down the options list.  
  
"Tony speaks Spanish around the office?" Jack queried.  
  
"Only when he's pissed off." She muttered. She looked down at the list of words, many looked familiar, but she couldn't tell if it was from trips to Mexico, high school Spanish, or listening to Tony cursing. _At least he has that self-restraint_ she thought, glancing slyly over at Jack, mind you, he didn't have the luxury of being bilingual.  
  
Nina sighed, they should have brought a Spanish dictionary, chances were, at least one of these options were firewalls, and at least one was an alarm. She thought back to any instances she'd heard Tony talking Spanish in the office. She could hear him in her mind.  
  
"Maldito sea, no lo puedo descubrir!"  
  
She scanned the list for 'descubrir'. The first part of his sentence was sure to be swearing, and she knew no...puedo meant 'I can't'. She found a word that began with 'descubr' so she took a leap. Clicking on the icon she was relieved to be presented with a second screen that requested a file name to find, if descubrir meant to find.  
  
She typed in the long chain that was the name of the files, watching as Jack once again began walking around the room. The computer made a loud clicking sound as it scanned all of its hardware, and then popped up with a seven-digit number.  
  
"Got it!" She yelled out at Jack, who came running up from one of the rows towards her.  
  
"What is it?" He sprinted to the ladders at the side of the wall. He tugged on one, and then the other - neither would budge, they were both magnetically locked to the wall.  
  
"Isle 4, on the left, 49 along from here, 29 up from the floor." Nina spieled off.  
  
Jack walked around the end of the rows, slapping the side of each row until he found row 4. He walked to its left and looked at the numbers along the bottom, painted every five drives, and reached 49. Looking up at the rows in front of him, twenty-nine was probably ninety foot up.  
  
There were any ladders, and there didn't seem to be any purchase along the massive cabinet. "You have to input a code in order to pull the disk out?" He asked her, gripping the handles on two drives just above waist height.  
  
"Yeah, otherwise the hard drive is wiped and the data goes back into the server computer." Nina recited from Walsh's briefing. An agent had come into the Malero building as a prospective client and been given lots of information about the safe guards.  
  
"Have you got the code for our drive?" He asked.  
  
Nina still had nearly a page of coding left to input, so she called out to him, sliding the chair along to see down the row, Jack was hunched over, holding onto two hard drives, she didn't know what he intended to do.  
  
After he'd heard her response he pulled the drives from their slots, signaling a beep in the corner of her computer, and she watched him for a second, pulling drives out a little and then using them as footholds and handholds to scale the cabinet. She heard a second beep and pushed the chair back to the terminal, checking to see if it had triggered any alarms, it seemed like they were only notices on screen, she couldn't see any indication the computer was contacting the security system.  
  
She watched as each alarm sounded, canceling them as they went, and glanced nervously over her shoulder at Jack, he was getting high above the ground, and there was little chance of him surviving if he plummeted from that height.  
  
"Nina!" She heard him call, she didn't respond, waiting for his question. The room seemed to echo any noise over a certain level, so Jack's request came in loud and clear. "Where is the drive?"  
  
"Forty-nine along, twenty-nine up." She yelled, hoping her voice resounded as well in the room as his did.  
  
"Put the code in." He called back.  
  
Nina nodded, her internal translator seemed to be back online, and she clicked on the button to retrieve the file. Once again, the magnetic scanner opened, and she had to over-ride the computer and input the release code in manually. She clicked on 'verifice', leaning over her shoulder to see Jack's precarious position whilst she waited for the computer to give her the all clear. "Okay, pull it!" She yelled up at him as the computer okayed her command.  
  
"I got it!" He yelled, and hooked the drive over his wrist. It wasn't quite a large enough handhold to fit much higher up than his knuckles, but he did it anyway, and reached his foot out below him for the foot holds. He slid himself down onto it, and pushed his second hand hold away. The drive slipped down his hand, tearing up a layer of skin and he let himself wince, once, before he resolved to ignore the pain. He heard Nina's footsteps on the ground beneath him, and kept extremely quiet to hear her pack up his gear, what little of it he'd taken off and left on the ground.  
  
When he reached the ground her ripped the drive off of his hand, taking a little skin around his knuckles off with it, and passed the slightly bloody drive to Nina, who slid it into the zip pouch of her pack, free from water exposure, shielded from magnetic scanners, so no chance of wiping the data, and away from Jack's bleeding hand, and the problems caused by corroding iron in his blood.  
  
Jack leant against the adjacent shelf for a minute to catch his breath, whilst Nina forced the last few footholds back into the wall. She was reaching for Jack, ready to help him up, when she heard the computer start to beep.  
  
She sprinted over, while Jack slowly rose back to his feet, and tapped a few keys. "Uh...Jack?"  
  
The uncertainty in her voice caused Jack a little alarm, and he rushed towards the central island to join her, pulling his pack on as he went.  
  
"We've triggered an alarm." 


	5. Golfing ponds

-24-  
  
"I thought we input all the correct codes." Jack growled at her, moving round the desk.  
  
"Obviously not." She muttered, placing her hand on the papers and using them to vault herself over the desk. She grabbed the sheets of code as she landed on the other side of the table, taking Jack's lead and following him to the door they'd come in by.  
  
When he reached it ahead of her, he was able to pull it open, and held it for her. They could remember the entrance points to each room they'd come in by, and ran along the corridors until they noticed a flash light making it's way towards them. Jack pressed frantically at every door along their path, praying one of them would open before the security guard shone his light door the corridor.  
  
He was too late, he was blinded by torch light just as he found a loose door, and tugged Nina inside just in time to hear the guards call to each other "Por Aqui! Estan aqui!"  
  
"Board the door!" He ordered her as he pressed his back against the door, holding the inside handle up. Nina reached around in the dark, on either side of the door, and felt a waist high dresser. She pushed it along the wall, it was heavy, and she let out several loud groans, but she managed to force the dresser far enough over for Jack to help her, and it forced the handle up, stopping it from turning.  
  
The guards reached the door about the same time as Nina let go of the dresser, reaching for her flashlight. They pushed at the door, yelling words she couldn't be bothered to make out, muffled by the door and the wall cavity, and she shone the torchlight along the dresser, at Jack. The light hit his bad hand first, he'd taken quite a layer of skin off, his hand was dripping blood on the wooden dresser.  
  
He noticed her pause and took point, grabbing his own torch out of his pocket and shining it around the room, it was an office, spacious, but it was an office. There was a large carved wooden table in the middle of the room, and behind it the wall was covered in blinds. He gave one more look at the door and rushed over to the blinds. A pull on the cord revealed a window that looked out onto the side of the Malero building, forty foot of garden, and then the golf course of the Marbella Sheraton. He yanked the chain to the side, keeping the blind at its current level, and grabbed the chair, he threw it at the window, but it rebounded.  
  
"Damn it!" He exclaimed, wrenching a hand across his chin. He took a deep breath and turned, looking around the room. The security guards behind the door were begining to push the dresser enough to cause him some concern.  
  
Nina grabbed the two guest chairs and propped them at an angle against the dresser, hoping they'd hold the dresser in place a little longer, and then made her way over to Jack. He was fixing something to the window. "What's that?" she asked him.  
  
"C4." He muttered, and then keyed a button on the small digital display he'd fixed to it. A countdown of fifteen seconds began.  
  
"Where the hell did you..."  
  
"I went out after breakfast." He explained, placing a guiding hand around her waist and pulling her over to the corner of the room. He pushed her in the gap between a filing cabinet and leant over her.  
  
The blast blew out the window, as he'd hoped, and deposted the desk in front of the door, giving them extra time. He rushed over, keeping to the stable parts of the room that hadn't collapsed into the floor below, and pulled out a rapelling hook. Across on the other side of the hole, Nina quickly did the same, and he waited for her to rapel off the edge of the floor before he did. They slid down the building, four floors below them was the floor, and they each dropped as quickly as they could.  
  
When Jack reached the ground Nina was still a floor above him, having taken a moment to kick out two security cameras on her way down. "You know we can't get hold of a gun..." She muttered as he undid the clasps around her legs, holding her half her height above the ground.  
  
She dropped to the floor, sliding down his body, but having no time to revel in the contact this time. "...But we can get hold of a high class explosive." She finished, brushing herself down and patting the hard drive before they sprinted into the tree line.  
  
There was a security camera on a pole above the wire fence to the golf course. Nina started into the clearing before Jack pulled her back, tugging her into his lap in favour of having her land on the floor. He leant over her shoulder, pointing at the camera through the bush she'd just been about to hop over.  
  
She slid off his lap, squatting down just in front of him. She glanced over at the fence. "Do you have any wire cutters? Or are we climbing the fence?"  
  
"I don't like my chances on climbing it before the camera turns again." Jack placed his hands on Nina's back to hold himself up, to avoid falling backwards onto the grass.  
  
"Do you hear that?" Nina muttered.  
  
Jack squinted, focusing his ears on the sounds of the ciccadas in the trees, and the waves crashing against the rock face, nearly a kilometre away, he couldn't hear anything to cause him concern. "No."  
  
"Ssh."  
  
Jack heard a distant dog yelp, and then another, slightly louder, slightly closer. He licked his lips. "Shield yourself from the camera, let's go."  
  
The camera, luckily, didn't have a motion sensor, and rotated away from them just as they sprinted across the green to the fence. Jack cupped his hands large enough for Nina to get a foot in, and when she placed her foot in his hands he lifted her up.  
  
Nina grabbed the top of the fence, and using her twenty-five-push-ups-a-day honed strength lifted herself up and slid a leg over the metal bar, settling on the bar, one leg on either side of the bar. She reached a hand down to Jack, and he gribbed her hand with both of his and jumped up, sliding his feet up the metal wire, trying desperately to find purchase on the fence. Nina continued to pull, and it wasn't long before he had his torso over on one side and his legs on the other.  
  
The camera was rapidly turning to face them, and so Jack pushed himself over, rolling so he landed on his shoulder and back, as he'd been taught to when getting off a helicopter or airplane. Nina's landing was a little easier, and they were back on their feet, running across the grass towards the hotel and the parking lot.  
  
Nina turned as she ran and noticed the dogs, three of them, and two guards, making their way across the green towards them at various speeds. "Jack they're still behind us." She called to him, he grabbed her flailing arm and tugged her into the foliage, giving him a minute to stop and see the dogs. They looked like rotweillers, although he couldn't make them out clearly at this distance, and he was getting panicked. Nothing like special ops to give you sinophobia. He doubted the dogs were trained to apprehend them, more likely to rip them apart.  
  
They took off again, running further into the foliage, and headed directly for the large pool right next to hole 6. Jack showed no sign of slowing down, and when they got close to the edge of the water he called out to Nina, "Jump!"  
  
They dived in the water, keeping one hand linked. Jack opened his eyes underwater and looked around him, the water was thick and dark, but the surface looked yellow from the floodlights far over, closer to the hotel. Jack looked at Nina, she had opened her eyes, but she kept shutting them, her eyes unable to cope with the acidity of the stagnant water.  
  
Jack noticed a shadow on the floor of the pond, and swam towards it, pulling Nina along, she didn't seem to be dragging him towards the surface, so he doubted she was getting hypoxic, but he wasn't sure if she was as accomplished a swimmer as he was, and didn't want to keep her under for too long.  
  
When he reached the surface above the shadow, it was just as he'd expected, a bridge over the water, he reached a hand up to grip the cement at the bottom of the bridge and tugged Nina out of the water pressing her hand against the cement and hoping she'd grip it too.  
  
She took a deep breath when she reached the surface, no coughing, she obviously hadn't started to run out of air, and began treading water. The sound of barking got closer, and in the dark shelter of the bridge they could freely watch the dogs lead the security guards at the edge of the water. One guard took a dog around the edge of the water, hoping that they would pick up the scent again, whilst a second took out a flashlight, and shone it across the water. Jack grabbed Nina and pulled her under, watching as the flashlight moved around the pool. He held her under, keeping her closer to him, rationalising it by saying it was to stop her from drifting away, wrapping an arm around her waist.  
  
He looked down at her, with him there holding her, she didn't need to open her own eyes, and had instead shut them and bowed her head, letting her hands lightly grip Jack's elbows, maintaining the contact. He satisfied himself she was okay by pressing a hand to her neck. She looked up at him, and then lowered her head again. She opened her eyes and gave him a soft smile before lowering her head for the second time.  
  
Jack kept them under until Nina began to get agitated, she raised her head after a few minutes and pressed a hand to her mouth, trying to point out that she was running out of air. He quickly looked over the pond, he couldn't see the flash light, and so he swam to the surface, guiding her up with his hands.  
  
They trod water to hold themselves at water level whilst they took a few deep breaths. "Looks clear." He whispered to her, when she'd finished sputtering, and he swam to the waters edge and pulled himself out, reaching a hand down to Nina as he looked back over at the Malero building.  
  
The sounds of dogs were gone, as were the guards. He tugged Nina out of the water, letting her collapse onto the grass next to him for a few seconds whilst she shivered and got a few deep breaths. The golf course water hadn't been cold, but as it evaporated of their skin, in the cold easterly wind, it seemed almost artic.  
  
Jack knelt down behind Nina and pressed the release straps on her backpack, taking the computer drive off of her to carry himself. "You okay?" He asked her as she wiped her mouth, brushing as much of the dirt off of her lips as possible.  
  
"Yeah." She replied, leaning forward on her knees and taking a quick breath as she rose to her feet. "Come on." She muttered, reaching a hand down to Jack to pull him up.  
  
He fixed the back pack to the extra strap on his own and stood, ignoring her offered hand and leading the way to their car, which they'd parked in the hotel parking lot. Their clothes were soaked now, and their shoes made slapping sounds along the wet grass.  
  
When they reached the edge of the parking lot Nina grabbed his hand and pulled him down behind a car, he did as she requested, hiding himself, ducking his head under the window. He heard a car moving around in the parking lot, and looked under the car body, watching as a security car, like those he'd seen in the parking lot of the Malero building, parked in front of the entrance to the hotel.  
  
He watched a brief exchange with the hotel concierge, and then as the man allowed them to walk around the hotel parking lot, checking with flash lights for people sneaking around cars, just as they were doing.  
  
Nina had crouched in a position that afforded her a view of the hotel entrance as well. "What do you want to do, Jack?" She asked. She wasn't a field agent, she didn't know what to do, didn't have a plan forming in her head.  
  
Jack pointed to a car closer to theirs, closer to the exit and she ran over to it, crouching near the back end of the vehicle. He joined her a few seconds later. "I doubt we'll be able to make it very far." He muttered, and they managed to their car in the same fashion, pausing every few cars and rolling underneath them to avoid the passing cars.  
  
He pulled the car keys out of his leg pocket as he laid underneath a car a few metres from their own, gripping it tightly in his hand to avoid any sound. As though the car wouldn't make enough sound when they started it.  
  
Nina rolled out from under the car and watched the security guard car patrolling the other end of the car park. "You think we can make it out without them noticing us?" She whispered to Jack as he pulled himself up beside her.  
  
Jack rubbed his damaged hand across his mouth and wiped the mud away from his mouth. "I think we can make it to the car, but not out of the lot in it. You want to get a hotel room?"  
  
"Here?" She asked, hoping that Jack realised how impossible a plan that would be.  
  
"No, a motel, up the road." Jack clarified.  
  
Nina glanced out at the exit to the hotel parking lot. She didn't like the idea of running up the road to a hotel. It was dark and they were soaking. She wasn't sure if there would be security staff patrolling the road, or if they'd ask the hotel if anyone had checked in soaking wet in the last few minutes. Jack had evidently decided that they were taking the risk. He opened the boot to their car and held the lid low whilst he tugged the black carryall out of the boot. It held a change of clothes and a few things to brush up with, money and their false passports, travel documentation, just in case it all went horribly wrong and they had to leave.  
  
Jack pushed the car boot shut and locked it again, placing the bag between the two of them as he scanned a possible exit to the parking lot. He tugged her towards a gap in a row of cars, sliding between two as the security car drove past the end of the row. 


	6. Cheap motels

Jack watched as Nina emerged from the bathroom, soaked, but this time in clean water, dampening the thin white towel that barely covered the expanse of flesh between her chest and the tops of her thighs. Her hair was sticking up in little clusters, matte in some areas and shiny and pointed in others, dripping tiny dots of clear water from the tips. She'd taken longer than the previous night to shower, longer than him, the dirty water from the golf course having seeped into every pore on her skin and the mud having dried a little as they sprinted along to the motel.  
  
He watched as she stood in front of the suitcase, she shook her head, twice, showering the worn carpet floor with dots of moisture and then unzipped the case, pushing aside clothing in favour of the thin cotton house coat they'd packed for themselves. She wrapped it around herself, outside the towel, and then rolled her shoulders, finally realising she was being watched.  
  
"So what's the plan?" She asked, retrieving her hair brush from the bag and settling down on the floor, looping her legs up underneath her. She dragged the brush through her hair once before he answered her, distracted for a moment.  
  
"Lie low, here, tonight and then get out of here tomorrow morning." He told her. He scratched the short hairs at the back of his head as he spoke, they were still damp from the shower.  
  
Nina nodded, and they sat in silence for a few minutes before anyone spoke again. Nina finished with the hairbrush and pushed it onto the table, getting up and moving in a different direction.  
  
She'd noticed the scabs on his knuckles. "Let me see your hand." She said as she took a seat in front of him on the bed. She reached out for his hand and held his palm against hers, rotating his hand, examining the clusters of dry blood around the bone ends that extended in long stripes up his fingers. "Did you wash it?" She asked him.  
  
The first aid kit was open on the bed next to him. He'd probably been about to dress his hand when she'd emerged from the bathroom. She pulled the kit across to her, sliding it along the ruffles in the bedclothes to her hip, where she extracted an antiseptic wipe.  
  
"In water," Jack replied. He leant forward to give her better access to his hand.  
  
Nina dropped his hand to her lap, taking a moment to read the back of the wipe packet. "This is Iodine, it's gonna sting." She informed him, and then tore open the packet and shook out the creases on the saturated wrap.  
  
Jack didn't have time to mention the small vial of hydrogen peroxide or that of rubbing alcohol before he bit his tongue as the soggy orange wipe made contact with his cut. He winced as she dabbed each knuckle in turn, refolding the napkin as it became dry in places. She eventually finished his fourth knuckle, over his little finger and screwed up the napkin, placing it in the lid of the first aid kit as she grabbed the gauze. She sneaked a glance up at his face, smirking as she encountered closed eyes.  
  
Nina placed a piece of cotton wool between two of his worst fingers and wrapped the holey white film around him knuckles, taking the material all the wall round three times and then pulling two pieces of adhesive tape out of a dispenser securing the first piece around the bandage and placing the second piece on his nose.  
  
Jack opened his eyes, having not realised he'd kept them closed for so long, his hand was still tingling, with a dull background ache in his hand from the earlier scrape and the beginning of a bruise. He gave Nina a few moments to enjoy his embarrassed look before he peeled the tape off of his nose.  
  
"Sorry." She muttered, collecting the iodine cloth and the extra piece of tape in her hand. She shut the lid of the first aid kit and dropped the box in the bag, and then padded into the bathroom to leave the rubbish in the bin there.  
  
Jack flexed his fingers, testing the limits of the bandage. He was only going to wear one for the night, and maybe tomorrow morning, until the skin had healed enough for him to take it off. He brought the hand to his foot, cupping the toes as he flexed them, in their turn, and grimaced, inwardly, as she looked around the room.  
  
In the hotel room last night, he'd slept on the couch. It was a spacious room, and the couch was large, he'd slept quite comfortably, but he wasn't sure exactly where he would sleep here. The bed very loosely fit the term 'double' and the carpet on the floor was worn and hard. He wanted to sleep in the bed, but he wanted Nina to get some rest too.  
  
Nina returned to the bed, she played with the hairs at the back of her head, squeezing a fistful and letting it go, dripping a little water down her wrist. "I'm exhausted." She confessed, slapping her face and pirouetting in the middle of the room.  
  
"I suggest you get some rest." Jack said.  
  
"Aren't you going to?"  
  
"What?"  
  
Nina explained herself. "The way you said it - as though you were planning on staying up all night..."  
  
"No," Jack thought through their situation. It had been over an hour since they climbed out of the pool at the golf course. They'd ran down to the road and found this place, gotten a room and both had showers, not once had either of them seen a security guard's car, after the initial area around the Malero building. There was no reason to keep someone up on watch - besides he was a light sleeper. "I think we both need to get some rest..." Now how to broach the subject of where?  
  
"The bed maybe small, but I don't tend to fidget so..."  
  
"Yeah, I'll try and stay still." He had a tendency to move around in bed, too many nightmares. He wondered if it had disrupted her sleep last night, she hadn't mentioned it. He let out a soft snort of laughter and lifted the bedcovers around him.  
  
Nina returned to the bathroom and pulled off her towel, hanging it over the edge of the bath tub and wrapping her gown around her again. She flicked off the light as she left the room and rounded the bed, pulling back the covers. She slid inside the bed, flinching, almost as though she'd been burnt, when her shoulder touched Jack's he moved away a little and she relaxed. This was stupid.  
  
"You okay?" Jack asked her, as a hand snaked out of the bed covers to reached the light switch.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine." Nina replied, uncomfortably.  
  
"Okay," he switched off the light and slid further under the covers, pulling them up around his chest. "Goodnight." He whispered in the darkness.  
  
-24-  
  
Nina opened her eyes slowly, blinking. The room was dark, there was some light far away, but her unfocused eyes took a while to make the source out. She stared vehemently at the curtain, this intruder in her sleep. She padded out of bed and dragged the curtain shut, stalking back to bed before she was fully awake.  
  
The sudden dent in the bed rolled Jack over onto his back and his hands intruded into her personal space. Nina settled back onto Jack's hands, resting her back on them. She didn't realise there was another person in the bed until she rolled over onto her side, inadvertently crushing Jack's wrist and fastening his hand against her chest.  
  
Between her rib cage and the bedsprings, Jack let out a loud, pained wail. "Aah!"  
  
That, finally shocked Nina awake. "Oh God!" She sprung upright and rotated so she could see Jack over his shoulder. He sat up against the headboard and rotated his wrist, rubbing the bone and scratching around the porous tape that fastened the bandage. "You okay?" She finally asked, as Jack's movements across his hand slowed.  
  
Nina took his injured hand and smoothed her fingers around his wrist bone until she began to feel awkward. She searched for something more purposeful. She peeled the tape off the edge of the bandage, and then removed the gauze. His knuckles were covered in a thin layer of clotted blood, but new skin was probably already forming underneath.  
  
Nina racked her brains to think of something to say to him. She didn't raise her head until she knew what to say. "Sorry I woke you." It was a feeble start, but it was conversation that wasn't directly related to touching him.  
  
Jack's injured hand hit the covers like it had burnt her. "Do you know what the time is?" He replied.  
  
Nina looked over at the counter, there wasn't a clock, but Jack's wristwatch was on the bedside table, the bedside table on her side of the bed, and she reached over, sliding it to the edge of the table with an index finger. She collected the cold silver and dropped it next to her on the bed. "It's nearly ten." She admitted, annoyed that they'd awoken so late.  
  
She raised a hand to her face, rubbing at the corner of her eyes and removing the sleep from the creased skin. Her head dropped as she did so, and she noticed the wide parting in her gown, it lay open from her neck to her navel, held secure by the flimsy sash. Nina forgot her eyes and quickly wrapped the cloth around her, she hadn't put on a bra before bed, and Jack had been given a few inches of skin down her torso.  
  
Jack pretended not to notice as she closed her dressing gown, Nina didn't glance up for a few seconds, and it gave him a few seconds to correct his expression, which ever one appeared on his face, taking a choice out of disappointment, embarrassment, arousal, curiosity, an endless choice of emotions.  
  
"We must have been exhausted last night." He commented, pushing the covers aside and sitting upright off to the side of the bed. He considered getting dressed and going back to the hotel, he considered the possibility that only one of them went, and brought the car here.  
  
"Yeah." Agreed Nina, shifting around on the bed so she could lean back against the headboard. She'd had a very sudden awakening and relished the comfort of the sheets and soft pillow. She collected Jack's watch and held it in her hand. She was rubbing the watch face with her finger tips, only vaguely worried about smears across the lenses.  
  
Jack glanced over at Nina, she seemed preoccupied. "Hey." He caught her attention. "You okay?" He asked when she finally directed her attention at him.  
  
"Yeah, yeah." She shuffled against the headboard, making sure to keep the front of her gown closed. She settled back into the same confused posture.  
  
Jack placed a hand on the bedclothes near her thigh. "Hey." He said again, distracting her from her reverie and hoping she'd notice herself and confess.  
  
Nina jolted again, and let out a withering sigh before she spoke. "I just..." She leant towards him as she searched for the words. "...why am I here, Jack? I'm not a field agent - I write papers, fill in forms.."  
  
"You can do this, Nina." He told her, standing up. He placed his hands on his hips even though it was hard to look authoritarian with his shirt off.  
  
She wasn't convinced, she edged closer to him, carving paths in the bed sheet with her nails. "Last night, I had no idea what I was doing, I couldn't input the numbers fast enough, I don't know _what_ I did with the codes."  
  
"Nina." He pleaded with her to stop. Truth was, that she wasn't a qualified field agent, and in this arena, she could cost them their lives.  
  
"Jack..."  
  
"Nina, last night - you knocked out a security camera, you inputted God- knows how many codes into God-knows how many doors, you got us the data, you..."  
  
"I wasn't able to disable the alarm, I don't even know how we triggered it."  
  
Jack sat back down on the bed and grasped her wrist. He was sure her nails were about to cut into the sheet. "Nina, you're a good agent. You can do this." She refused to look at him, so he reached out for her chin, turning it towards him. He realised how sudden his movement was and let his hand drop to her shoulder curling the fingers around her shoulder, he was surprised that his finger found a perfectly shaped enclave in her shoulder blade. "I need you in this, don't bail on me now."  
  
She shut her eyes. "I'm not going to bail on you." Nina let out a whimpering sound, not of her own volition. "But Jack, I don't know if I can do this."  
  
"I need you in this, Nina." He muttered to her again, he let go of her wrist and slid a hand onto her knee, stroking the knee cap with her thumb. She opened her eyes and gave him a soft smile, she used her own hands to brush her hair away from her face and tried to smile again.  
  
"Thank god you had this now rather than last night." Jack commented. Again a smile from Nina, a much easier one this time. She dropped one of her hands to wrap around his forearm, where he held her shoulder blade. "I need you in this." He reiterated, the words holding as much meaning this time as they did the first.  
  
They sat in silence, watching each other, relishing the chemistry, the closeness, the sensations of the moment, before it began to feel awkward, neither one of them willing to take the chance.  
  
Jack coughed, effectively ending their silence and let go of Nina's hand. "I was thinking I'd get dressed and go back and get the car myself."  
  
"Why by yourself?" Nina queried.  
  
"It'd be easier than carrying that bag up the road, and it wouldn't look as conspicuous." Nina nodded in agreement. "I'm going to get dressed."  
  
Jack let himself slide off the bed and wandered over to the suitcase, pulling out a pair of trousers and a clean shirt, completely ruffled and creased all over. He shook it out, examining the damage before he took it into the bathroom, glancing quickly at Nina, seated on the bed, one leg stretched out in front of her, watching the toes on her feet as she curled and wiggled them.  
  
He shut the bathroom door behind him, taking a quick stock of the small bathroom. Black clothing hung from the shower rail and over the edge of the bathtub, the trousers and shirts covered in crusted mud, the underwear much cleaner. He wondered if Nina had done as he did, standing under the shower in his underwear for a second, and then removing it and scrubbing it with liquid soap. He tried to ignore the visual, pleasant or otherwise, of Nina standing under the shower, soaking, removing her clothing. She rolled her shoulder blades. He wondered what her bare skin would look like when she did that.  
  
Jack had to physically shake his head to get his mind back on track. He placed his trousers and shirt in the corner of the sink and used the loo, and then pulled his clothing on as quickly as he could. Jack pushed open the door to the bathroom and was greeted by the sight of Nina standing in the bedroom, pulling a shirt over her head, he didn't take in much of her apparel, just noting the top disappearing over the bottom of her breasts and the expanse of thigh, concealed from his view by only a tiny strip of green material. He shielded his eyes and quickly shut the bathroom door again.  
  
Nina pulled the vest the rest of the way down her body and grabbed the gown she'd only just taken off. She put it back on, tying the sash around her waist, covering her modesty. She grabbed the door and pulled it open, revealing Jack standing there, with his hands on his hips.  
  
"Sorry, I..."  
  
Nina wasn't particularly bothered by him walking in on her, she was just desperate to get underway, back to their hotel. Jack broke off his apology as quickly as he started it, pushing past her into the main room. He started towards the bag.  
  
"I'll pack everything up in here, you head back to the hotel, I've still got to dress." Nina watched as he surveyed the room. Eventually he gripped the door handle.  
  
"I'll leave you with everything but the car keys, pay the bill, I'll probably get back in a half hour." Jack told her, she nodded slowly as she rummaged through the few items they had on the table, eventually tossing him the car keys. He caught them, and pulled open the door, heading out for his twenty minute walk up the road in the sun.  
  
-24-  
  
Nina fought off the urge to collapse on the bed when they finally got up to the hotel room. All she wanted to do was to lie face down on the large plush duvet cover, spread eagle and sleep for another five hours. She wasn't even tired, she just wanted the comfort. Jack dropped the sport bag on the chair by the door and she carried the hard drive to the bed.  
  
She settled for perching on the end of the bed and unwrapping the hard drive. She placed it on the centre of the king sized bed, rolling the plastic bag up in her fingers. Jack came over, collecting his lap top from the bedside table. The laptop was almost completely empty, it only contained basic running software and few basic files, the registration codes on the programs had been stripped, removing any chance of tracing any of the software back to CTU. Jack inserted a yellow floppy disk into the machine and started it up, letting the computer know that any of the usual logs had to be recorded onto the floppy. Nina opened up the back of the computer, unraveling a short length of cord and fixing it into the back of the hard drive. The computer whirred into action after a short silence, and Jack was able to announce to Nina. "All the information is here, but the files are still encrypted."  
  
"The Dramhurst key." Nina muttered. Jack exited the file manager and shut down the computer, disconnecting the hard drive, and removing the floppy disk. From now on the computer could not be run without the floppy disk.  
  
"Which we know Carlos Batilla can lead us to." Jack muttered. This was the part of the plan that neither of them liked. Carlos Batilla was a Spanish military officer, a General. His name had been decoded in reference with several Basque separist groups, ETA among them, but nobody could prove he was dirty to the extent that the Spanish Military court requested them to.  
  
Nina nodded. "We going to start tonight?" She asked, having let out a short sigh.  
  
Jack glanced up at her, taking in the brief withering look that flitted across her face. "We'd better." He responded. He watched her stand up and walk a short circle, she tapped her thighs and closed her eyes. "We don't have to, if you're feeling..."  
  
"No, no." She responded, "It's okay, we start tonight." She wandered off, and Jack heard the bathroom door click shut.  
  
-24- 


	7. Linello Showrooms

The Linello Showrooms were one step away from a strip joint. The furnishings were elaborate, heavy wooden bars, tables - the seats were thickly cushioned, rotating bar stools and dining chairs with tapestry padding. At the far end of the room was a stage, with a piano and a string quartet, playing accompaniment to a solo female singer, a thin French woman who had draped herself over the body of the closed grand piano.  
  
Pedestals, dotted around the room hosted scantily clad dancers, who occasionally climbed off the pedestals long enough to entertain a particular high paying ogler. The majority of the clientele of the bar were male, although there were a few women that weren't employees, but each one was attached to a man, afraid that should they venture off, their position on their lover's hip would be stolen by one of the dancers.  
  
Nina collected the olives from her martini and sucked the bitter alcoholic fluid off the end fruit. Her eyes scanned the bar once again, and she crossed and uncrossed her legs again, plucking the last olive off the end, biting into the green foodstuff.  
  
The bartender came over, by now he'd gathered she spoke English, although he probably didn't realise she was American, and asked if she was okay. "I'm fine, thanks." She replied, offering a weak smile and nodding. He wasn't the guy she was looking for, but he was horny, so as far as he was concerned, he had reason to monopolise her conversation.  
  
"I can not get you anything?" He inquired, tripping over his syllables.  
  
"No, I'm fine." She said again. The slimy bartender tossed back a lock of hair and licked his index finger; he took her hand and ran his wet finger down the back of her hand. He blew at her hand, and then dropped it back on the table, so she could wipe her hand on her skirt.  
  
A skirt, which was far too short for her liking. She wasn't normally one to care, and she certainly wasn't a prude as far as clothing went, but this particular skirt had a zipper at the waist, and the end of the skirt wasn't two inches from the end of the zipper. The skirt was black, like most of her clothing, but it had two slits at the side, reaching to the hilt of her thigh. The top was red, very red, it was a vest that criss cross straps at the back and it had a cowl neck at the front, with a few tiny beads. She'd fluffed about with her hair for nearly half an hour, evidently the stagnant water from the pool was still taking its toll. It was now looking somewhat normal, and coupled with flawless makeup...she looked like a whore.  
  
But then turning around and scanning the room, again, so did all the other women in here.  
  
She yawned and arched her back, inadvertently letting her blouse drop another inch over her chest. "You getting tired?" Jack's voice came over her earpiece, the small clear plastic vibrating a little as he spoke.  
  
Nina checked for anyone listening to her, no body was around; the pervert bartender was serving someone else. "You see him yet?" She asked, taking a sip of drink from her glass. She crossed her legs again, rotating the barstool. She spun round, moving straight past Jack and watching the stage performer.  
  
Jack was seated half way across the room, in front a dancer. She was bored with him, having tried to seduce him and finding him dedicated to the mission, she'd moved on, and was about to be escorted away by a young businessman. Nina spotted another woman making her way towards Jack, and was sure he would be distracted again in a few minutes. "Hang on, I think he just walked through the front door."  
  
Sure enough just as he finished talking, a woman made her way up the podium steps and began dancing in front of Jack, who had to afford her some attention, regardless of whether or not he found her attractive.  
  
Nina directed her eyes over at the entrance door, sure enough, Carlos Batilla, the military officer they were hoping to ensnare was standing by the door. A concierge had taken his coat and he was being led towards a booth in the centre island of the room. She diverted her attention to a dancer to avoid looking directly at Batilla, and then made her way over to the bar closest to their table. She walked right past Jack, but wasn't sure if he noticed her - the dancer was in his lap now.  
  
-24-  
  
"Carlos!" welcomed Pierre Linello, the proprietor of the Linello showrooms. Carlos had been coming to the showrooms for two years now, he tried to come once a week, when his work would permit, but he hated coming at the same time as his soldiers. Tonight they were all on maneuvers or confined to barracks, it suited him perfectly.  
  
Carlos wrapped his arms around the man, and allowed him to lead the way to his usual booth, right in the middle of the room. The raised back afforded him some privacy, whilst the position gave him a prime view of the stage, of Senorita Calenta who sung every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night. Carlos took a seat in the plush leather booth and watched as Lieutenant Hant slid in the booth opposite him. "Are you hungry?" Pierre inquired.  
  
"Yes, I want that lovely duck recipe your chef makes." Carlos requested. Pierre spoke the French name, but Carlos waved him off - their mutual language was English, trying to teach him French was a waste of time.  
  
"He's been wanting some of that all week." joked Hant, who took a menu to make his choice. It was rare that Carlos could tolerate his subordinate's company enough to invite him to the Showrooms.  
  
"And your company for the evening?" Pierre asked. He wasn't really bothered with Hant's choice in food, not that the man had chosen yet, Carlos had the temper.  
  
"Is Colette in tonight?" Carlos asked. Colette was a 21 year old blonde, she was thin as a rake, but with large breasts and wide hips - a pornographic fantasy. She was also a very good actress, and had Carlos believing she enjoyed her time with him, meaning she could charge higher and higher rates for her services.  
  
"No, tonight she is unwell - a cold - I'm afraid." Pierre apologised, angry he hadn't been more insistent with the young woman when she had phoned earlier.  
  
"Chloe, then?" Carlos moved onwards.  
  
Pierre had just watched Chloe walk off the most eastern podium with a rich businessman from Germany. Carlos may have had the temper, but this young man's clientele was much more valuable to him. "No, I am afraid she is indisposed."  
  
Carlos sighed and reached into his pocket, he pulled out a cigar. One of Pierre's waiters leant forward and lit the cigar for him. He took a long drag before he removed it and spoke. "The English girl?"  
  
"Edith returned home to continue her studies, Carlos." Pierre apologised. He glanced around him, Carla, Lolita, Sukie, Jing-May and Gretel were all dancing on podiums around him, easily accessible. He wished that Carlos would just chose one of them.  
  
"Well what girls are working for you tonight then, Pierre?" Carlos growled. Across the table, Hant retreated into his cushion. "I will make my choice from them."  
  
Pierre opened his mouth to name women, but Carlos barked him shut. "Never mind, I will make my choice from the single women here, surely there are some." Carlos grinned across at Hant. "I doubt there's a woman here who's mouth I haven't felt."  
  
"Amongst other things." Hant commented. Carlos and Hant laughed together, Pierre just watched nervously - it looked like he would have to hire new staff, before the General's next visit.  
  
"Leave me, get my duck." Carlos dismissed. Pierre shuffled away, leaving Hant, and his order with Carlos. The younger man would quite happily make a detour to the bar in order to place his order of food, and take his choice from one of Pierre's girls that was working tonight, he knew that Maria, a seventeen year old native was partial to Hant, and him to her, despite his oafishness and outwardly misogynist demeanor.  
  
Carlos directed his attention at his current dinner companion, Hant, who began to fidget upon realising he was the object of his superior's perusal. Carlos suppressed a laugh, new recruits were one thing, but the company of Hant was not something he desired tonight, or any night. He was looking for a woman. "I finished that report you asked for on Private..."  
  
Carlos cut him off. "Do not talk to me about work, not now, not here." He reprimanded, and allowed his eyes to wander. Hant had yet to make his order yet, and made excuses to go to the bar. Carlos watched him retreat away, and noticed a group of women seated at a table, not far from where Hant had progressed to the bar - they couldn't have been more than twenty- five years old, and tourists, local women didn't come in here unless they wanted to make a wage. Carlos headed to the bar, he would purchase drinks for all of them, and see which ones would bite.  
  
Carlos had aged well. He was nearly fifty, but his career in the military had demanded physical fitness, at least for the first fifteen years, and he'd managed to keep it up to a reasonable level. He still took his boat out every Tuesday and dived into the water for a quick swim. Carlos had a mop of black hair and deep skin, and his accent had gotten him his fair share of 'local hospitality' when he'd toured with the Navy and then the Air force. He hadn't attempted to find a woman outside of Pierre's payroll in nearly a year now, but he was confident in his abilities.  
  
Carlos waved a hand at the bartender as he approached the bar, the young man nodded - quickly passing a drink to a client and then moving over to Carlos, ignoring the cluster of clients that had settled around the till. "Get me a few bottles of Don Perignon for that table over there." He told the young man.  
  
"Would you like me to bring it over?" he asked, his Spanish wasn't fluent, he formed a few words differently - Carlos guessed Italian or French.  
  
"No, I will take them - two, perhaps a third." Carlos requested. The man wandered off to collect the bottles, climbing down into the cellar, and Carlos let his vision wander. Isabella Calenta was holding onto the tie of her pianist as she laid back on the piano.  
  
"Are you going to drink all that yourself?" asked a voice behind him, female. Carlos turned, only to be greeted by the image of a young woman, perhaps thirty, dressed in red and black. She had short black hair, and soft blue eyes.  
  
And the smile she wore on her face left no interpretation. "I might need some help." He replied, resting against the counter. The bartender opened the first bottle, eyeing the body language and understanding the odd word of their conversation. He reached under the counter for a second glass.  
  
"That's good champagne, are you celebrating something?" The woman placed her hands on her hips, cocking one towards the champagne.  
  
"Yes." Carlos took the two poured glasses, passing one to the young woman. She raised her eyebrows, and he answered her silent question. "Meeting you."  
  
She laughed, giddily, almost as though she had had a little too much to drink already, and chinked her glass with his. She leant forward and placed a hand on his elbow, letting her shirt drop a little, revealing milky white cleavage.  
  
Carlos brushed off the stool between them, and gestured with his hands for her to take a seat there, she obliged, slipping onto the stool and turning it a little so she faced him. Carlos leaned back against the bar whilst he sipped some of his champagne. "Have you been in Malaga long? Here on holiday?"  
  
"I'm here for a week more - from LA." The woman replied, crossing her legs. She had yet to take a sip of her champagne. "Nina Archer." She told him, extending a hand halfway to his chest.  
  
Carlos extended his own, "Carlos Batilla." They shook hands. He took the time to take in her body, he started at her waist and worked his way down and then took more stock as he reached her feet. She wore strappy black shoes, lovely legs, of which she bore a lot, the skirt she wore was making its way progressively up her thighs. She was leaning towards him, dropping her blouse a little, he could see her chest, down to the skin between her breasts. He found himself unconsciously leaning forwards.  
  
Nina coughed, smiling widely at Carlos as she caught his attention again. "How's your champagne?" He asked her.  
  
She took a quick, but long sip and swallowed it suddenly. "Lovely, thank you." She replied, she gulped and looked down at the floor for a second, scratching her ear.  
  
Carlos searched for a topic of conversation that wasn't completely redundant. "Are you enjoying your stay?" He asked, coming up trumps. Nina laughed and placed a hand on his elbow again, rubbing at it with her thumb.  
  
"Yes, its lovely - warm and sunny. I haven't seen much of the mountains yet, but..."  
  
"I grew up in the mountains." Carlos commented. Nina leant forward, resting an elbow on the table and taking another sip of her drink. She raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Really?"  
  
Carlos nodded, turning to face her and placing an arm on her knee. She was obviously interested, but Carlos wondered if his chances with her were the same as his chances with the women at the table. Was she worth potentially loosing the chance of having two young women from the table? He sneaked a glance at them out of the corner of his eye...they weren't stunningly attractive, not like this one. "Yes, my father had a cabin up there, he worked in the city. He left every morning at five and returned after I'd gone to bed."  
  
Nina smiled, "What about your mother?"  
  
Carlos laughed, letting his thumb smooth around her knee. "She died when I was young, but I don't want to be thinking about my mother right now." The woman laughed, almost a cackle, and Carlos slid his hand further up her leg, wedging his thumb between them. "Join me at my booth." He said to her.  
  
Nina nodded, and stood, accepting his hand to lead the way to his table. He carried one of the bottles he'd requested, leaving the other two, and his own glass to the table. Nina made sure to take hers with her. Carlos paused as he reached the table, letting Nina slide into the booth before he did.  
  
Nina adjusted her skirt as she waited for him to take his seat, she took a moment to get a surreptitious glance at Jack, who was sitting down in front of another woman, one closer to the table than he had already. He looked over at Nina, giving no indication that he'd spotted her, but she had to hope he did. She had no intention of letting Carlos lead her further on than she wanted, it was make the switch and get out carefully, that was her plan.  
  
She felt Carlos' hand on her thigh before she saw him put it down and she nearly jumped, she covered it with the most seductive smile she could muster, and glanced down at his hand.  
  
Encouraged, Carlos bought his hand further up her thigh, deciding to test the limits of her restraint and her skirt, his palm landed on the end of the black material, leaving his fingers with free roam of her thigh. She laughed and collected his hand, bringing it back up to the table to play with his fingers. Carlos was not in the mood to be toyed with tonight, didn't want some frigid tourist leading him on.  
  
He knew it was rude, but he was about to query her intentions when she spoke. "This is cold." She told him, and slid his gold onyx ring off his finger, placing it down on the table. She replaced his hand on her thigh, leaving it a little lower down than he had placed it.  
  
Carlos objected "This was a gift from my father." He told her, gesturing with the ring in his free hand whilst his other hand rode up her thigh. He didn't want to waste any time with this woman, he wanted to know what she was willing to do to him tonight, and he wanted to know now, so he rotated his wrist and slid his fingers up her skirt, reaching several inches inside the shiny black fabric.  
  
She gasped whilst he spoke, but had recovered enough to retort him at the end. "And I don't want to be thinking about your father right now." She responded, collecting her glass of champagne and taking a long sip.  
  
Nina fingered his ring on the table for a minute, leaning back in her seat. Carlos swore her legs slid a little further apart as she did so, and took the opportunity, swapping hands to make himself more comfortable. He reached an arm around her back, rubbing her shoulder and drawing her closer to him. He kissed her, reaching as far into her mouth as he could and reaching his hand as far up her skirt as possible, she groaned into his mouth as he played with the fabric between her legs. He broke the kiss quickly. "Why don't we finish this some where else? Pierre has a number of rooms..." He raised his eyebrow at her, letting her read exactly what he wanted her to into his suggestion.  
  
"Okay." She said, shakily and after a pause. She rose from the table, and Carlos stood too, leading the way away from the table, off to the same area that he had been to every night he'd visited here. All of a sudden Nina's hand pulled free and she darted back to the table.  
  
Carlos turned back, confused, and watched as she returned to him. "Don't you want your ring?" She asked, handing it to him. Carlos slipped his ring back on his finger, he didn't car if she said it was cold - he'd soon make her forget it anyway - but he didn't want to put it in a pocket and forget it.  
  
"Gracias." He replied, forgetting to speak English for a moment, he gave her a large grin and then tugged her towards the second exit to the club. One of the doorman opened the door for him and Carlos tugged her inside, ready to select a room for them.  
  
Nina began to worry, the plan was that Jack was to intercept them, but she didn't expect to have been whisked off that quickly. When she'd rushed back to the table she'd told Jack she was nearly ready to go, and now she wasn't sure how she would get out, at least not without fucking Carlos - something she had no plans to do. The microphone was two way, but she couldn't say anything without Carlos noticing. Carlos led her up a flight of stairs. The building was three storeys tall and decorated in old style furnishings that almost matched the lobby, the same mahogany banisters and railing, but with green wall paper rather than the red outside. On the second floor Carlos opened the large door at the top of the stairs, leading the way inside the room, he still had a strong grip on her wrist and she didn't want to struggle, not unless she thought she could get away.  
  
The door slammed behind them, and Nina glanced around the room, it was big, a large four poster bed in the middle of the door on her right, no curtains, just bare posts and a few tied net curtains, on the far side of the bed was a door, open, and leading to a bathroom. On her left were a few dressers and tall window, barely open, letting in the humid night air and sound of the town below. Carlos gave her a long revolting kiss before he wandered over to shut the window. "Make yourself at home." He instructed, wandering over to the bathroom. He shut the door, blocking out the bathroom light from the room.  
  
Nina searched for a light switch in the dim streetlight, she eventually found one, whispering to Jack in her earpiece. "Where are you?"  
  
"Where are you?" He asked back.  
  
Nina rounded the bed and watched the door to the bathroom, terrified it would open at any second and she'd have to shut up. "Out the back, second floor, door at the top of the stairs." She whispered just as the door opened.  
  
Carlos came out of the bathroom, sporting a wide smile on his face as Jack's voice came back over the earpiece. "I'm on my way." He told her, the radio buzzing in her ear.  
  
Nina smiled back at Carlos as the man rounded the bed and reached out his hands for her. He took her hands and pulled her towards the bed, not kissing her until she nearly tripped over the mattress. Nina tried to think of a safe place to put her hands, she didn't want to edge him on, but she didn't want to slow him down too much in case he objected and she ended up trapped. She settled for putting them on his neck, whilst his freely roamed her body, eventually finding the side zipper on her dress and the tie on the straps at the back of her blouse. He managed to untie the top and partially unzip the skirt before she took a more active approach.  
  
Nina pulled her lips away from his and pushed him backwards, causing him to land on the bed with a thump and a bit of a bounce, she settled herself on top of him, straddling his stomach and held his hands for a minute, playing the drunk to the best of her abilities, after a while Carlos began muttering her name and reaching for her clothing again so she moved onwards, trying to avoid the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and to ignore the prodding from his erection on her thigh.  
  
Carlos laughed, throwing his head back, as she backed herself off of his hips and felt her hand enclose around his zipper - she may have been drunk but she was quite eager, for a woman rather than one of Pierre's whores, and after the longest unzipping these trousers had ever experienced, he felt his erection free from his trousers. Her hands tugged at his boxers, he longed for her to slip her hands inside them, and she, excruciatingly slowly, pulled his boxers down.  
  
The door bursting open wasn't exactly the thing he was expecting to happen. Carlos yelled obscenities in his native tongue at the man in the doorway, a blonde in his mid thirties as he grappled with his fly. The man was calling the woman's name "Nina, what the fuck do you think you are doing?" He asked. The blonde man gripped the woman's forearm and pulled her off the bed. "Jesus! I leave you alone for a second."  
  
Nina seemed stunned, she pulled her arm away from him and made a start back towards the bed, only to be grabbed by the wrist and jerked away. "Jack, I'm warning you..."  
  
"We have one fight and you just find some nameless Spanish guy to shag? You are my wife, Nina!"  
  
Carlos was stunned, he scrambled off the bed and stood on the other side of the woman, placing his hands on his hips and scowling. "You are married?" He asked, shocked - Carlos had never been amazed by the sanctity of marriage, but he had only had one spouse to his credit, and he had been young and in love at the time.  
  
"I love you," Jack, the husband, ran a hand across his face. "I can't believe that one argument and....do you even know this guy...one argument, Nina - I love you!" He exclaimed, before heading to the door.  
  
"Jack!" She called after him, repentant. Carlos knew he had to return to Pierre's floor, unsatisfied. Nina reached out for his arm and grabbed hold of it, stopping him at the end of the bed. "I'm sorry." She whispered, standing in his personal space in what should have been an embrace. "I'm so sorry."  
  
Jack placed his hands on either side of his wife, resting them on her elbows. "What if we have more fights?" He asked her, his voice sounding tired and sad.  
  
"What _if_ we have more fights?" She replied, leaning into him and kissing him.  
  
Carlos watched the kiss, embarrassed, angry when he watched them break apart, eyes closed, they were obviously newlyweds, and reveling in the sensation of having the other close. "Let's get out of here." The husband said, before she led the way out of the room again.  
  
Carlos flopped back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling, at some point, someone had put the lights on, and he shut his eyes waiting for the green blur to pass. He wondered whether he should have left earlier, he could have let them have the room.  
  
That was the first night Carlos Batilla left Pierre's showrooms without getting laid.  
  
-24- 


	8. A Street car named 'espionage'

As soon as they got out of the show rooms Jack shed his coat and passed it to Nina. She accepted it, happily, and pulled it on, grasping his hand as he led her through the crowds in the Malaga touristic beachfront. They were too far from the hotel to walk back, especially if Batilla decided he didn't take to his women being stolen from him, so they continued up the road to where the strip joined the road, and Jack hailed a cab for them.  
  
The cabs in the central areas were yellow here, much like New York cabs, and he held the door open for Nina, letting her get in whilst he kept vigilant for anyone watching them. Satisfied he dropped into the cab, pulling the door shut behind him. They sped off as soon as he shut the door; evidently, Nina had already given the driver instructions.  
  
Jack glanced over at Nina, who was watching out the window at the drunken antics of the tourists. She was preoccupied and not paying any attention to the vista, but he glanced out anyway. A group of sun burnt twenty year old guys were doing the cancan arm in arm at the entrance to a bar, they all dropped their trousers and underwear as the taxi passed them, and Jack let out a solitary laugh. "Did you make the switch?"  
  
She reached behind her back, under the blouse whilst he spoke, pulling out the small chunk of gold and handing it to him. Jack rotated Carlos Batilla's black onyx ring in his hand, before he slipped it into his coat pocket. He nodded, she was his agent, and of course she did her job. "You okay?" He asked, she still hadn't turned from the window, and the air in the cab was getting progressively colder with her mood.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine." Finally some eye contact, she wrapped the coat closer and smiled lightly. She looked down at her knees, thankful that the coat covered her that much and opened her mouth, laughing at herself. "That was a bit of a cliché in there." She muttered, clearly hoping for a comment from him.  
  
"What do you mean?" He asked her, glad that it was feeling a little warmer.  
  
"You're my wife, I love you? I leave you alone for five minutes?" She raised an eyebrow at him and he laughed.  
  
"I thought 'Stella, Stella!' would have been a little too obvious." He joked. He lowered his head as he thought through the last hour. They'd certainly put on a show for Carlos Batilla. Especially the last part, whilst he was sure Nina was more concerned with the former, putting her body on display for a man she loathed, but he was dwelling on the latter.  
  
The cheesy repartee between them had been comical in his mind, but that kiss had stunned him. Every time he rethought the moment it had been unnecessary to kiss him, so why did she do it. He was fairly sure that she had initiated the kiss, but then again, it could have gone either way. He was annoyed that he'd let it be so obvious he'd enjoyed the kiss. Regardless, Nina wasn't talking about it, so he wasn't going to bring it up until he felt on safer ground.  
  
"You laid it on pretty thick in there." She said.  
  
"My trowel may need cleaning," he continued his cliché. "To get all the bull shit off of it." He clarified, and leant back in his seat. He wondered if she was as freaked about tonight as she had been two days ago at the motel in Marbella. "Did Batilla...."  
  
She cut him off, saving him from an embarrassing conversation. "I think we had him completely fooled. I can't say he was a perfect gentleman, but we made the switch, so..?"  
  
Jack nodded, they were passing the end of the human traffic, making their way out into the darker suburban roads. He fixed his eyes on a point outside the car and watched it disappear beyond his view.  
  
"Do you mind if I take a shower when we get in I..." Jack nodded, and she stopped talking. They both settled their vision outside the car whilst they searched for something else to say. It took three more silent minutes to get back to the hotel.  
  
-24-  
  
Kai's restaurant was a small corner place near the marina, which was odd, as it didn't serve any seafood at all, no fish, no crustaceans. They did serve tuna, but, obviously it wasn't locally caught - you didn't find dolphins this far into the med. Contrary to popular belief, there wasn't actually a 'Kai', the old man that many of the workers knew as the owner, whom they'd never spoke to, was actually an elderly man called David Hostin, born in Hawaii, who had moved to Spain as a young businessman, naming the restaurant 'Kai', the Swahili word for 'ocean' out of nostalgia.  
  
Outside, on one of the white patio chairs, sat Jack Bauer, waiting for his partner to return from the bar. She'd gone in to place their order whilst he was sitting outside, turning up the volume on the microphone concealed in his ear that was letting him listen on the conversations of Carlos Batilla thanks to the transmitter concealed in the ring Nina had swapped last night.  
  
They'd had to abandon the hotel when Batilla had moved out of range, he was currently on his boat out on the water, anchored several miles along the shore from Malaga, where their hotel was. Jack and Nina had decided to take a table at the restaurant and listen in on Batilla's conversation, taping all of it, just incase they got at all distracted.  
  
Nina came back to the table with a bottle of Portuguese beer for him and a glass of Spanish wine for her. She'd placed their food orders, but it would be a few minutes before the waitress appeared with either their dishes or the salad starter that Kai's served you regardless of whether you ordered food. Jack passed her a small black transmitter that she put into her ear, tuning in just as Carlos invited his companion, Lieutenant Hant, who'd apparently been at the club the other day, to join him for a dip - it was, after all, the reason that he went out there.  
  
"Do you want me to take over?" She asked Jack, during a momentary lull in Batilla's conversation. Carlos was quite boring to listen to for hours nonstop.  
  
Jack shook his head, reaching forward and lifting his beer. Nina kept the earpiece in, not wanting Jack to have to suffer the boredom alone, and settled back in her chair, taking in the view as she sipped her wine. There was a gentle breeze coming in from across the water, and whilst you couldn't see it on the sails, it cooled the air so that you were just pleasantly warm in the Spanish summer sun.  
  
Jack hadn't bothered with sun tan lotion, he was wearing a shirt and trousers, so the only skin that was exposed and burnable were his face and forearms, both hard areas of the body to burn. Nina, on the other hand, had spent a little while lathering it on before they left, she was wearing a short sleeved top and knee length skirt, meaning she'd had to pour the white cream over her legs and arms, a small section of her chest and back, hoping that she wouldn't end up with red patches on her body.  
  
Sitting there in the sunlight with their sunglasses on, sipping their drinks, waiting for their food. It would have been easy to forget that they were here with a purpose. As if to remind them, Hant suddenly piped up. "Isn't that your phone, sir?" The young man asked his superior. The faint ringing sound was barely audible on the headphone, but it became progressively louder as Batilla approached it.  
  
"Batilla." He answered. Jack and Nina glanced at each other, this could be revealing.  
  
Nina mentally translated the conversation as Jack's laptop recorded every word he said, running it through voice recognition software and a grammar editor before it used its translation programme. "Juan, what do you mean someone broke in?" Batilla yelled into the phone. "The building is secure."  
  
The waitress placed down a large bowl of olive salad, and Nina quickly thanked her, brushing off her offers of salad dressing, pepper and mozzarella. She pressed the earpiece closer when the woman left. "The code key is on the base." Batilla told the caller, who they presumed to be the elderly Juan Malero.  
  
There was a moment's pause. "You expect me to give it to you, what - for safe keeping?" Batilla laughed. "Besides I have to go to Fuengirola in the morning - I wouldn't have enough time."  
  
Nina and Jack strained, hoping to hear the other side of the conversation. "My fault - I told you I couldn't get the key until they redid inventory next month, it was your responsibility to keep the...How did the British even find out?"  
  
Nina raised an eyebrow and Jack chuckled. People thought of spies and the first one was James Bond, not the Americans who tended to get into the wrong wars and the wrong fights. Martinis were better shaken and not stirred, and spies were better British with haughty accents, having read law at Oxford.  
  
"Take care of him, the code key will be safe on the base." Batilla slammed his phone shut, with a loud thump, and there was a moment's silence when he headed out to speak with Hant.  
  
"Who was that?" Lieutenant Hant asked.  
  
"None of your business." Carlos snapped. There were several harsh air sounds, probably Carlos removing his clothing, and then a loud splash. Jack removed his earpiece to avoid the bulk of the sound - Carlos had dived into the sea.  
  
-24-  
  
Jack clipped the wire cutters through the last rung of fencing, having slit it from the floor to their height, whilst squatting. He dropped the cutters on the grass and grabbed one side of the fence, Nina grabbed the other, and with a strong pull they managed to part the hard wire fence around the cut.  
  
Jack let her slip through the fence before him, and then he climbed through, pulling the two sides back together as best he could. He unzipped his backpack and pulled out his grappling hook, attaching the climbing wire to the multipronged piece of metal.  
  
"The grass is wet." Nina muttered from where she sat, half on, half off the grass verge. Her hand was feeling the damp.  
  
"Shit!" muttered Jack, reaching a hand up and feeling the grass next to Nina's hands. The grass blades were indeed wet to touch, probably having only been water this evening. This would make them easy to track, easier to trace. They were going to leave muddy footprints. "We're going in boots unless absolutely necessary." He told her.  
  
Nina nodded and pulled her infrared goggles over her face, Jack's body becoming a blur of orange and red. She stood and reached a hand down to Jack.  
  
Running across the damp grass, it wasn't long before they reached the granular tarmac that ran for fifty feet around the central intelligence headquarters.  
  
They'd bypassed the cadet barracks, across the other side of the base, all locked in for the night. All they had to contend with tonight were the officers on duty. Unlike the Malero building, there were officers in the Intelligence offices all night, and the penalty for getting caught was something that their government would have to worry about.  
  
They risked leaving prints on the tarmac, wet, muddy foot prints, but the granular tarmac had several sharp pieces on it, broken glass and pebbles, and Jack didn't want there to be blood around for them to see and potentially test as well.  
  
Search lights swept the concrete from the look out points on the top of the towers and Jack watched the timing of the sweeps, presumably there were sentry officers on guard, sitting at the top of the building, weapons at the ready. Jack and Nina removed their infrared goggles almost as soon as they saw the lights, the goggles would have had a terrible time with the brightness, probably destroying their retinas in the process.  
  
The sweeps seemed to be rolling around at a constant interval, Jack could only presume that they were automatically done, he scanned up and down the pavement for a length that was smaller, until Nina pointed out a sentry shed, probably used during maneuvers midway across the pavement, running back into the bushes, they sprinted along the side of the paving to a point opposite the bunker.  
  
-24-  
  
They climbed up the walls of the ancient military building with much ease. The officer's mess, now shut for the night. It closed at eleven, but this was typically a training base, and the officers who came here had to be up for classes starting at six. It had huge tall windows, each spanning the height of two floors,, the brickwork was ornamental, patterns of blocks that protruded from the walls, providing excellent purchase for climbing. They scaled the walls without worrying about being caught by the search lights, and pulled themselves up to peer over the top and check for guards.  
  
It was important to be silent on the rooftop of the building. Whilst there was only one sentry station, a discovery they made when they reached the roof, it was manned by three men, who had to keep on constant watch of the floor below them. Luckily there were levels to the flat roof to hide behind, and they were able to reach the other side.  
  
The intelligence building was directly on the other side of the mess, it was barely ten foot away, which was what the grappling hooks were for. Unfortunately there wasn't anywhere secluded enough for them to hang from, and they couldn't risk being caught by the watch officers. "Looks like we're gonna have to take them out." Jack said to Nina, squatting on the rooftop.  
  
She nodded, and watched as he unclipped his pack in search of the tranquiliser darts. Nina found her tranquiliser gun in her pack, and hoped that the time on the FBI's shooting range had paid off. Jack retrieved his own, and held open the dart case, so Nina could load her weapon. When they were both ready he moved closer to the wall and shook two fingers at Nina in a complex pattern, pointing at his eyes, her, the search tower and either end of the building.  
  
Nina scowled and crept over to him. "What?" She whispered to him.  
  
Nina wasn't familiar with military movement commands, so Jack clarified. "You try for the one closest to you, I'll get the two that end, go round the front of the building and up the sentry stairway, I'll climb up the railing and the dish receiver."  
  
Nina nodded, running in a crouched position along the roof to the other side of the building. Her shoes made little sound on the roof, the sole was lined with a pliable plastic gel that made a quiet slapping sound as it hit the walkway, but that was it. She rounded the front of the building and ran along to the sentry post. They had no idea when the guards changed, if someone took a step out of the sentry post, they were monumentally screwed.  
  
She checked the gun, making sure it was properly loaded, she didn't want the feathers on the dart to get caught in the mechanism and keep the dart in the chamber. Satisfied it would fire correctly, she peered out into the sentry station. She was to fire first, she couldn't hold Jack up.  
  
The guards were all having a casual conversation, the one nearest her, completely ignorant of the world around him. Nina stepped out into the stairway, and shot the guard, catching his shoulder, he pulled at the dart and yanked it out before he slumped over the railing and onto the next tier of the roof, unconscious. The guards managed to get two shots out before Jack fired the tranquiliser darts at them from his gun, hitting them in the shoulder blades. They fell quite quickly, from the adrenaline and the lack of ability to pull out the darts.  
  
Jack leapt up onto the edge of the sentry platform just as Nina slid out from the wall she'd used as a shield from the guard's bullets. He surveyed the officers for a minute, and then took a gun from each officer, slipping one into his own pack and passing one to Nina. It was about time they had some firepower. 


	9. A transparent dancer

The intelligence headquarters' storage facility was three standard floors shorter than the mess, this meant they had to rappel off the roof of the mess, down to a storey or so below the facility's roof, and then use the hook gun to fire a grappling hook at the ceiling of the other building, and glide across it.  
  
Jack waited for Nina to rappel a storey down the roof to make sure her rope was secure and they rally off the roof onto his own rope, a pair of officers walked past and they froze, but remained undetected. Once on the roof of the building they rushed over to the roof entrance, secured by a numerical keypad lock.  
  
Nina reached into one of her trouser pockets, reaching for a small makeup compact that had been designed for them by the CIA, she pulled off the adhesive label on the back, detailing the contents of the powder and pressed it to the control panel, obscuring the numbers. Nina opened the compact and removed the powder, taking the small control pad from Jack and slapping it into place. With a few commands, the compact was searching for the numerical sequence to open the door, and after five or six seconds, six digits flashed on the console. The key to the outer door.  
  
Nina stripped the compact off and Jack read the number, keying it into the pad as he did so. The code was correct, the door buzzed, they were in.  
  
On the other side of the door there was a darkened stairway. Jack checked for a release mechanism on their side of the door and then let it shut, blocking out the only light into the room. There were no blinking lights on the wall, no red flashing bulbs that would indicate infrared cameras, the tiny amount of red light that the scanners gave off. They slipped their infrared goggles on again and took a look around to be sure, but they were in the clear.  
  
The only place the Dramhurst key could be stored was in the vault at the bottom of the building, but whilst the building was shorter than the officer's mess next door, it extended for several stories below ground. It was a long way down.  
  
-24-  
  
For some reason, this stairway, although central to the building, was deserted. Nina and Jack made it all the way down to the bottom with out passing a single security guard, but when they reached the bottom of the building, they had to venture out into the corridor to gain entrance to what they were sure was a securely guarded vault.  
  
The fiber optic periscope crept its way under the door and into the corridor. The tiny piece of transparent cabling had been on its fair share of missions, and today was one of the rare occasions when the cable was able to give a clear view of the corridor. For the moment no one was walking along it.  
  
Nina peeled the compact off the keypad panel and held the code so Jack could see. He keyed in the number and listened to the release sound, cringing. He pushed the door open, and Nina tiptoed out, listening carefully to hear if someone had noticed his or her entrance.  
  
Jack felt so much more comfortable, reaching into his back pocket and retrieving the guard's revolver from the waistband of his trousers. He held the gun low and by his side, following Nina as she ventured in what ever direction she chose, neither of them being entirely sure what they were looking for.  
  
She suddenly pulled back, staying behind the cover afforded by the wall, and pressing against it so Jack could move past to see what she had avoided. A quick glance showed a young officer, sitting at a desk inside a Plexiglas room, guarding the entrance to the vault.  
  
"What do we do now?" Nina whispered to Jack. She was confident that the guard couldn't hear their discussion through the walls that had completely screwed up their entry plan.  
  
Jack scratched the thin layer of stubble that peppered his chin. He turned dropped his backpack to the floor and opened up his bag, just as he noticed the air vent in the wall. He smiled and pulled the bag to the side, the vent opening was small, it certainly wouldn't fit a person inside, but maybe there was another entrance that would.  
  
He zipped up his bag, glancing up at the ventilation piping in the ceiling; it was large enough to fit a person in, easy. He pointed Nina to the vents and they followed them along the halls, checking for personnel around every corner. They seemed to end at the lift shaft.  
  
Now Jack needed something from his backpack, he pulled out a pair of emergency door openers, magnetic paddles. He pressed one to the door, keying the magnetic lock to activate, and pulled. It was only sheer brute strength that was going to get the door open and it did. The thick metal door slid to the right. Nina unclipped her torch and shone it down the elevator shaft, and then back up again. Leaning into the shaft they could see that the elevator was a few storeys above them and climbing steadily.  
  
Nina directed her torchlight to the wall of the elevator shaft and Jack grabbed his pack again, he could climb the shaft to find the air vent, so he stood on the end of the platform and jumped off, grabbing the handles, and after a few seconds of flailing legs, he found purchase on the rails and told Nina to avert the torch light.  
  
It was much easier to see in the shaft with the night vision goggles than it was in the torchlight, the torchlight cast shadows, obscuring important details, such as, Jack discovered, a large entrance to the ventilation ducts. Jack whispered Nina's name, and she turned back to him. "Come on." He gave as a simple order, and Nina took his hand to help her onto the railing so she could climb down the shaft with him. The elevator door shut behind her - she pulled the magnetic grip off as she rounded the door, and the door automatically shut on its own inertia.  
  
The vent wasn't securely closed, the grill covering slid off easily when Jack tugged it, and he moved aside to let Nina crawl in first, lest she needed any help from him to get inside. He climbed in behind her, and then slipped the vent doors closed behind him.  
  
This was the ventilation duct system that ran just above the floor they'd just been on, the same floor as the vault, which hopefully contained the Dramhurst code key.  
  
Nina crawled along the piping, dragging her legs, being as quiet as possible, and hoping that no one below them would hear. They passed several large gratings in the duct - possible exits onto the floor below, but at the moment, all of them led to the corridors outside of the vault area. Nina crawled along, hoping that the flooring wouldn't wear a hole in the knees of her trousers.  
  
-24-  
  
When Nina stopped suddenly, Jack had to extract his head from her arse without feeling like a fool. She crawled on after a few seconds, coming to rest a little way from where she stopped the first time. Thankfully Jack hadn't recovered fast enough to have to extract himself a second time, so when she turned around it wasn't embarrassing.  
  
She'd stopped with a grating between them - a hatch, just the right size for a person, of a similar design to the one they'd climbed through to get into the system in the first place. Jack peered down through the metal, realising why Nina had stopped, she'd chosen a good place. The view from the railing was one of the corners of the secured area that the guard had been protecting. Unfortunately the vent was secured from the other side, so Jack was forced to kick the vent open, eventually only getting it open because of a broken screw.  
  
Jack hung down into the secure vault. The room was dark, completely - it was probably quite a cavernous room beneath them, Jack could only see so far with the help of the night vision goggles, but it was completely black. He pulled himself into the ventilation duct only reposition himself well enough to jump out so he'd land on his feet, and then supported Nina by the waist as she lowered herself to the ground.  
  
It was easier to see the intricate details on objects with torchlight so they both slipped off their night vision goggles and grabbed their maglites. They were standing in a section of the room that was a palace of filing cabinets, but knowing the code key was an antiquity, they were able to scan the area for an exit rather than having to read the inscriptions on the front of the cabinets, some of which were several decades old.  
  
Jack led the way through the columns of cabinets towards the far corner of the room. He'd already mentally worked out how far they were from the guards post, and he wanted to search the areas furthest from the post - that would call the least attention first. They walked through cabinets for a few minutes, both silent, until they started to come across beds of filed paintings, each separated by a strip of metal, keeping one separate from another but allowing the movement of the paintings. The ability to flick through each one, like cds at a music store.  
  
The Dramhurst key was something they'd seen photographs of, from the vague images, it was a book jacket, and so Jack led on. The arrangement of the pictures was less muddled than the cabinets, the paintings were in rows, so it was easily to cover the fifteen metre expanse, making it across to the other side relatively quickly.  
  
A makeshift partition separated the book depository from the rest of the room. It was thin, metal railings on wheels, with pieces of material with the metal sewn into the hem, the kind of partitions at the doctor's office to bar the bed from the entrance to the room. It was obviously only a temporary measure.  
  
On the other side of the partition it was obvious that somebody had recently done some cleaning, at one end of the cornered off area were rows of books, all neatly stacked, all dusted - most likely in meticulous alphabetical order, but in the corner of the partition that they'd just stepped through, there were piles of books on the floor, with the letters in loose order at best.  
  
Jack shone his light across the thousands of objects around them, over the antique dressers, the cars, one that looked suspiciously like Hitler's beetle and back to themselves, looking around the room. Secure in the knowledge that they were alone, he spoke: "What was that name again?"  
  
Nina was already starting on the first row of books over in the 'F' section; the 'A' section was closer to him. She paused from her perusal of the bookcase to answer him. "A transparent dancer." She told him, keeping her voice low. She shone the maglite over the next three or four titles in her vision and read the first few letters on each of the spines in turn, hoping to see 'A transparent dancer' in the book titles.  
  
"In what language?" was Jack's next question, as he scanned the bookcase nearest to him, Nina made a mental note of the bookcase he looked at, there was no point in them checking the same one twice.  
  
"English - Dramhurst was English." Nina reminded him.  
  
Jack scanned the 'P' section of the bookcase. 'P' surnames included mainly Italians and English people, which made sense, he could only think up a few famous composers beginning with 'P'; Purcell, Puccini and Purandell all of whom where either Brits or Italians.  
  
Nina suddenly moved behind him, muttering something to herself, before Jack turned his flash light on her, he moved closer. "Dramhurst, Dramhurst." She was muttering, and as she got closer he noticed her flashlight scanning the section of 'D' authors. He followed her motion, realising at the same time as she had that the idea had come up trumps. "Well, it was worth a shot." She muttered, and left him hovering over her previous spot.  
  
-24-  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Nothing? Can't be, it's got to be here." Jack squatted down next to Nina, as though the book were right in front of her and she just couldn't see it. After a quick scan of the books, which annoyed Nina so much she stood up, he too couldn't see it, and stood to join in a more productive conversation.  
  
"Isn't there anything else we can do?" she asked him.  
  
"No, we knew what we were looking for, it's not here, and maybe Batilla stopped here and..." Jack reasoned, before he was cut off.  
  
"Can't we go up to Batilla's office?"  
  
"We don't know where it is, and those guards will wake up sooner or later, if they haven't already been found." Jack watched as Nina sighed, they were as pissed off as each other, but getting caught wouldn't help them. "We'd better get out of here."  
  
She nodded, exhausted, and she turned, leading the way to the pipe they'd crawled out of. Jack guided her, placing a hand on her shoulder blade until they were about to enter the cavalcade of filing cabinets, when she suddenly bolted.  
  
"Nina, what are you doing?" He asked her, as she pushed through paintings in one particular drawer. She didn't respond, so he joined her, holding the paintings as she rifled thorough them.  
  
She slid out a painting and placed it on the top of the cabinet, she ran a hand along the frame, obviously recently cleaned. It was a beautiful painting, a piece of classical work, an imagined painting of soldiers and harlots around a dining table. The work was obviously centuries older than the frame, which was a silvery metal that would never have been used to frame a painting in the 18th century, simply because it wasn't in fashion.  
  
Nina slipped her maglite into her mouth, holding it in place with her teeth whilst she rotated the framed canvas, there was an adhesive label stuck to the side of the frame, and amongst the alphanumerical coding, it read 'A transparent dancer'.  
  
Jack smiled, and Nina slipped the torch out of her mouth. He squatted to the floor and unzipped the longest compartment of his backpack. The painting didn't fit entirely inside, but it fit in the compartment enough to hold in place. He hoisted the pack up and fixed it back over his shoulders. "Okay, let's get out of here." He whispered to her, and rose to his feet.  
  
Nina nodded, and they sprinted to the vent opening.  
  
-24-  
  
A huge klaxon alarm sounded as Jack reached the duct entrance in the elevator shaft. The sound was moderately muffled by the wall insulation, but they could clearly hear the cartoon siren on the floors around them. "They've found the guards." Nina muttered.  
  
In the darkness, Jack nodded, pushing open the duct entrance, for a moment he held off climbing into the shaft as he heard a slow metallic grinding sound, and then the elevator moved past the entrance to the ventilation system, blasting Jack and Nina with a wall of air.  
  
Jack glanced back at Nina, and looked out onto the elevator, which had stopped a few inches below the duct on the lowest floor. "Let's go now." He whispered to her, crawling out onto the roof of the elevator and hoping that the doors hadn't opened on the floor below all that long ago. He crawled onto the elevator roof safety and reached out for Nina as he felt the elevator below him lower. It was just a fraction, but it meant someone had climbed inside.  
  
They couldn't risk being separated, so he grabbed Nina's hands, where she was holding the outer rim of the duct, and pulled, lifting her out of the pipe in one swift movement. He set her down with plenty of time before the elevator began to move.  
  
As it jerked into action the elevator knocked Nina and Jack from their secure position in the centre off to the edge, pressing Jack against the wall and Nina on top of him. He pulled himself up using the elevator cable, and the momentary counter weight brought the elevator to a halt. Nina tugged him to safety and they stood in silence, praying for the elevator to start to move again.  
  
This time they were better prepared for the jerk, and quickly regained their balance, using the most stable drunkards pose, feet quite wide apart, placing their hands on each others arms to stabilise themselves. Jack slipped off his night vision goggles, once he realised Nina had already done so, and reveled in the feeling of being propelled through the air, the night was warm, humid, but the building was air-conditioned, and the air in the shaft was cool - it blasted against the sweat on his forehead and froze it from evaporating.  
  
Nina looked just as hot, her hair was messed up, complete with a few sprigs of grass and leaves, and she had a sheen of sweat that was probably more a reaction to the temperature than the exercise they'd done tonight. Jack was glad it was too dark for her to be able to see the expression on his face, how attracted he was to her at this precise moment, in the motel in Marbella, every night she'd dressed up for the showrooms, for Batilla.  
  
It wasn't the whore look that attracted him, it was the amount of perfect skin she'd revealed.  
  
The elevator ground to a halt a few metres from the top of the shaft, maybe two floors beneath it. Jack dragged himself away, creeping over to the ladder and started climbing to the top of the building. Nina followed suit, and he slipped on his night vision goggles again, there didn't seem to be an exit at the top of the elevator shaft so he slipped open the nearest ventilation duct, which conveniently enough had an exit pipe leading to the roof. 


	10. Caught in the act

Jack could hear the shouts of troop leaders and commodore's giving their troops, their cadets orders to search the woods, fan out, and shoot anyone that resisted arrest. They were only a few steps behind them now, five maybe six more minutes and they'd catch up.  
  
He stopped still at the edge of a lake, pooled into by the river Guadiaro, unfortunately too still to hide them, but he got an idea. "Strip." He ordered Nina, as he shrugged off his backpack and utility jacket, dropping them to the floor.  
  
She removed her backpack and jacket, and watched as Jack pulled out the pair of trousers he'd brought rolled up in his backpack. He unzipped his trousers, and she averted her eyes, instead finding the skirt in her own backpack, and tugging it on before removing her bottoms.  
  
When she'd changed, she pushed all of her things into her pack, double zipping it closed. Jack grabbed the straps and tossed it into the lake, and lifted his own when Nina grabbed his arm, stopping him. "The code key?" She questioned, pulling the pack back.  
  
"We need the frame, not the painting." He whispered, noticing a flashlight out of the corner of his eye, and pulled his arm free, tossing the painting into the lake.  
  
The flashlights approached and the shouting began to surround them, soon one of the cadets would look past the nearby trees and note that the still figures by the lake were people, and when that happened, they needed a story.  
  
Jack pulled Nina to him, wrapping his arms low on her waist. "We are out here for a walk, if they ask for details about our stay - tell them. Is there anything in the car?" He whispered into her ear, judging how fast the locals were approaching from the rise in volume.  
  
"I don't think so." She replied, wracking her brains, thinking through the last time she'd looked in the glove box, in the boot, if there was anything under the seat, on the back, anything what so ever that could incriminate them. There wasn't anything that sprung instantly to mind.  
  
Jack nodded, and then sat down on the ground, he extended a hand up to Nina, who accepted it, upon eyeing the approaching militia. Nina Archer sat in her husband's lap, leaning into his warm embrace, watching the moonlight on the water.  
  
-24-  
  
"So, my commodore tells me your name is Jonathon Archer." Began the thirty something interrogator. He was the fourth person to come in to talk to him since he'd been forced into this chair and handcuffed to the desk, but he was the first one to be out of uniform.  
  
He was probably a senior agent who'd been dragged out of bed when the alarms had gone off, and then called in to interrogate whoever was found on base, which, tonight including the Archers, a honeymooning couple from LA, completely unaware that they'd stumbled onto military land.  
  
"Yes." Jack replied, "I'm an American citizen, I'm here on my honeymoon."  
  
"With your wife, Nina." The man didn't refer to any notes as he spoke. None of the previous officers who'd spoken with him had written any. The little information Jack had given to his subordinates was stored in his mind.  
  
"Yes." He was getting testy, even though he was attempting to be as calm as he could, but being repeatedly asked the same questions that were completely unrelated to his situation was driving him nuts.  
  
"She calls you Jack."  
  
"Yes." Jack almost growled his answer, and the agent raised his two thick Scottish-terrier eyebrows.  
  
"You know in England they correct Jonathon to John."  
  
"Well in America we change it to Jack." Jack pushed back from the desk and stood up, knowing it would elicit a response for the posted airmen. They cocked their guns. "Where is my wife? I want to see my wife!"  
  
"All in good time, Mr Archer." The man told him, he clasped his hands in his lap, watching as Jack slowly retreated to his seat. "Now, tell me again, why are you on my base?"  
  
Jack let out a noise that could only be described as a growl and rubbed a hand across his face, brushing off some of the blood that had encrusted under his nose. It had bled when an eager young cadet had clocked him across the face. "I've already told your officers! I was out for a walk, we saw the water, we stopped, we sat down - a few seconds later, there are officers all around us, yelling at us in Spanish, dragging us away."  
  
The senior official lowered one of his heavy eyebrows and turned to face Jack. "You're trying to tell us that you just happened to stumble onto a military base at the same time as one of our alarms go off?"  
  
"Can't you believe that we were that stupid?" Jack said, laughing, trying to ease the tension in the room.  
  
"You know in Japan they sell t-shirts with the writing on them, they say fucking stupid American tourist, and thousands of you buy them." The Spanish man laughed, and they nodded to one of his guardsmen, who complimented him on his humour.  
  
Jack just nodded along, exhibiting a small smile on his face to show his co- operation with the interview.  
  
The Spanish man waved a hand at one of his lackeys. "Coge carino a su esposa." He told the young men, and they moved forward, each hooking an arm under Jacks and tugging him towards the door. They dragged him along the corridor to another doorway, and the man who'd been interrogating him undid the cuffs on his wrists. "You will stay here until we decide we want to talk to you again." He informed him, and then Jack was thrown through the door into the room.  
  
-24-  
  
Jack hit the earth like a sack of potatoes. He managed to take in a mouthful of dirt before he remembered to shut his mouth, and he scrambled to his feet, brushing off his face and removing the mouthfuls of dirt he'd swallowed by spitting them onto the ground.  
  
The interrogation room had probably been entirely steel. Reflective walling and flooring, the table had even shone where it reflected the light from the massive swinging bulb that only seemed to reach as far as his and his interrogators face, although he could make out the torsos of the men around the room.  
  
They'd separated Nina and he as soon as they'd taken them into custody. She'd been calling his name when they'd smashed his head with a gun, but even then, her pleas had been fading. Jack hoped she'd been calling his name because she was acting in character, a frail society wife, not because of any real fear that she had had at that moment. He hadn't seen any sign of Nina after than.  
  
Judging by their movements, they'd taken them back into the centre of the base, possibly even back inside the intelligence headquarters, which he was unable to identify from sea level. There was no way that the dirt on the ground in this room was naturally designed to be there.  
  
It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the reduced lighting in the room, after the harsh glare of the corridor lights, his eyes had taken a beating, but the lights in here were hues of orange from the wall, which suited him much better. The ground was covered in a thick layer of earth, brought in from outside, but in the centre of the wall on the far side of the small room was a futon and a single bare mattress, so Jack plodded over to them and sat down, leaning back on the futon and resting his head on the concrete wall.  
  
This was a purpose built interrogation room, and he didn't doubt for a second that there were cameras in there.  
  
-24-  
  
"I sware I don't know." Nina pleaded for the sixth time, reaching an outstretched hand across the table to the man who was interrogating her. He'd only come in a few minutes ago, but had taken a much more direct route than his predecessor.  
  
"You shot three guards on CHOM." The dark haired, dark skinned man yelled, slamming his fists down on the table.  
  
"I didn't shoot anyone, I sware...I'm just here on my honeymoon, please I want to see my husband." She begged, drawing her legs under her chair.  
  
"Jack Archer?"  
  
She nodded, silently.  
  
"If this was all his choice, you can tell me. If he came here to do this, then you can tell me - you say you honeymoon? You do not have to be punished for your husband's crime." The man said, his sentence only slightly broken in places. The accent crushed every word though.  
  
Nina wasn't getting anywhere trying to be reasonable and logical. So she played on his fatherly weaknesses, hoping he had some, and started sobbing, hoping she could bring herself to let at least a few tears come, it was easier than she expected "Please, I want to see Jack. Is he okay? Can I talk to him?"  
  
The man pushed himself off from the table and issued an order he'd only made a few minutes earlier to Jack's guards. "Coge carino a su espose." Nina was hoisted to her feet, and one of the guards undid her handcuffs and then they led her to another room, opening the door and letting her walk in of her own accord.  
  
It took her a moment to adjust to the lighting in the room, but the other occupant wasn't having any problems. At the same moment the door shut, Jacks arms surrounded her, pressing her tightly against his chest. The momentary confusion disappeared after a second, as she realised it was an act. "I was so worried about you." He whispered into her hair.  
  
Nina swallowed carefully, it may have been playacting, but her boss' proximity still had an effect on her. "I'm fine." She replied tensely, nodding into his chest, as Jack maneuvered her over to a comfortable seat.  
  
She finally managed to extend her view beyond his shoulder when she was seated. They were off to one side of the room, a room with dirt flooring and orange paper walls. The room had a vague orange glow, from the lighting on the other side of the papers, and a strangely clean smell, considering the flooring, and the layers of dust that rebounded off the cushions when Jack sat down next to her.  
  
"My interrogation room was like a giant metal box, this room looks almost farm-y." She commented, reaching a hand up to her face to wipe off the drying tears from her earlier display, and leaning back on the padding.  
  
"It's designed like that, they're probably watching us right now." Jack said quietly. Nina nodded, they were going to have to keep up the married pretense until they got off the base. Jack was sat in front of her, watching as she wiped her face.  
  
"What did they say to you?" He asked her, taking one of her hands from her face.  
  
Nina shook her head. "Nothing, Jack, I'm fine."  
  
"Did they hurt you?" Jack growled, believing the first statement.  
  
She shook her head again, closing her eyes and leaning back into the couch, clapping out her own cloud of dust. Jack growled her name, causing her eyes to snap open and her stomach flopped as he squeezed her hand. "No, I'm fine, I just wanted to see you."  
  
Her eyes were beginning to get used to the light in the room, discerning Jack's features together with those of the crumpled paper walling behind him. He moved towards her, pressing his lips on her forehead, and sliding an arm round her back, behind her stomach to pull them together.  
  
She blinked several times as she stifled a yawn; his shoulder was temptingly close to a pillow at the moment. Eventually sleep deprivation won over, and she yawned loudly to the room, the bulk of the sound bypassing Jack's ears.  
  
"You can sleep. I'll wake you if they come." He told her, glancing down at her tiny body.  
  
Nina nodded, but didn't close her eyes, not wanting to fall asleep on top of him. It would be embarrassing to say the least, and now really wasn't the time to relax, not when they were imprisoned for espionage that they'd actually taken part in. 


	11. Waiter's favour

Nina didn't even realise she'd fallen asleep until Jack shook her awake, she'd heard the clanging of the door lock in her dreams, although she didn't remember in what context or whether she really remembered it.  
  
At some point during her sleep Jack had manoevered her head onto his lap, and that was where she struggled to get up from, rubbing her eyes and trying desperately to keep them open. The guards were inside the room when she finally sat up, and they were yelling at Jack, words her sleep fuddled mind took a while to translate, until the man who had interrogated her walked in.  
  
"The woman." He instructed his men in his native tongue, and Nina unconsciously gripped Jack's thigh.  
  
He'd understood their words without the help of a translation matrix in his mind. Nina's hand only served to support his worries, he covered hers with his and squeezed it lightly. The guards moved forward and one of them reached for Nina's shoulder.  
  
She felt a mixture of embarassment and fear when her first resort was to hide her body behind Jack's. He shifted over her and the guard pulled on his shoulder to get at Nina. He wouldn't budge. "Nina Archer, you will come with us." The man who'd interrogated both of them demanded.  
  
"She's not going anywhere." Jack growled back, shifting a hand across her legs to rest on the other side of the sofa, completely blocking her from them.  
  
Jack noticed him nod out of the corner of his eye and then felt a swipe across his head, as one of the guard clocked him with the butt of his weapon. Jack was knocked off the edge of the couch and onto the floor in front of it, on his knees.  
  
Nina stood up "Okay, I'll come, I'll come." She said to the room, focussing her last words on the speaking agressor. He nodded, and she took a step forwards, showing them she was willing to go with them, before she squatted neck to Jack, who was picking himself up off his hands and knees.  
  
"You okay?" she whispered to him, glancing up at the interogator as she spoke.  
  
He nodded, and pressed a finger to the cut on his nostril, checking the wetness was blood before he pressed his palm to his forehead. "But this is the last time we go sight seeing in Fuengirola."  
  
-24-  
  
Jack rose to his feet as Nina retreated across the room. The guards opened the door for her and then one followed her through, escorting her and protecting the English speaking man from Nina, just in case she decided to bust out some moves on him. A guard who was stood on the inside of the room closed the door quietly, and it was then Jack realised just how many hadn't left. Four men stood on the inside of the door, two holding rifles, and two disturbingly unarmed. Jack took in the buzz cut, the thick necks and watched as one man pounded and clenched his fists. The smile on his face - Jack had lead men like this into battle.  
  
The two unarmed men descended on him, one providing a swift blow to his stomach that bent him double, and the second giving a sudden kick to his leg, dropping him, once again, to the floor. He curved his body up as small as possible, hoping to shield his soft organs from their blows and mentally took himself to another place - exactly what he was trained to do when he was expecting to endure terrible pain.  
  
-24-  
  
She squinted across the table, across the bright light reflected in the steel table to her interrogator's shirt, a thin tag on his shirt seemed to bare writing, and she was determined to know how it read. As if in response to her thoughts, the man rose, changing the angle of her focus and blocking out the glares of the light, giving her a clear view "Hant, Lt JE." Batilla's subordinate. She knew she'd collected his What if Batilla had told his subordinate the name of the woman who'd slighted him at the Showrooms? Would Hant collect the dots?  
  
Nina was thankful when the door opened an a young officer came in, she guessed he was in his early twenties, and definitely subordinate to her interrogator. He stood to attention as he waited by Hant's side, and Hant took a deep, staggering - annoyed breath before he let the man speak.  
  
"Senor, oficial Juave no aparecio para su guardia. La policia militar busco en su dormitorio - no esta ahi. Pero la policia descubrieron referencias d'Eta y una restaurante en la strip." The man reported, his eyes focused solely on the wall.  
  
"Que trabajaba en, antes de su huida?" The officer pursed his lips and paused, causing his commander to repeat his question.  
  
Nina was mentally translating their conversation, running their words around on her mental tape loop until she knew exactly what they were talking about - it wasn't long before she had a general gist of the conversation. Some officer had fleed the base, they'd found connections to the terrorist group Eta, and to the restaurante on the strip - chances were that had been their informant at the restaurant. When the officer answered Hant's question; what was he working on before he disappeared? She was up to speed, the man was a gifted mathematician, he'd been decrypting some terrorist channels. Hant and the officer reporting to him had no idea that Batilla was dirty, they thought that the young missing officer was a terrorist agent.  
  
Hant paced the room for a few seconds, whilst Nina tried to decide whether watching him or ignoring his movement was the best way to keep him in the dark about her knowledge of their conversation. He shocked her by letting out a loud angry growl and then yelling to his subordinate "Poni ella y su espose en libertidad!"  
  
The man gripped Nina's wrist and tugged her towards the door, Nina didn't protest this time though, Hant had just ordered him to release her and Jack.  
  
-24-  
  
Jack wasn't in any state to drive them back to the hotel when the officers left them near their car. He'd handed Nina the keys with a shaky hand, the company insignia exhibiting a few bloody finger prints from when he'd pulled them out of his pocket.  
  
Nina winced in sympathetic pain for him as he lifted himself into the passenger seat, refusing any help from the outstretched arms she'd offered, and ignoring her suggestion that he lay down in the back. He forgot about her queries as he requested to know what they'd done to her. The heavy questioning was nothing compared to the brutality visited upon him.  
  
His clothes were matted onto his skin with crusting layers of blood, she knew his wounds probably looked worse that they actually were, he wasn't bleeding all that much anymore, and the pain was probably from the scabs shattering as he moved. She also knew just how stubborn Jack was, and wasn't expecting to hear about any broken ribs or shattered finger bones unless she injected him with truth serum.  
  
The valet at the hospital had not commented on him, just scowling at the state of the passenger seat of the car. Nina didn't bother to stop to get the rucksacks from the lake, they were probably safer underwater anyway, she just drove straight back to the hotel, where, thankfully Jack decided to accept her help to get out of the car, he joked that he was worried he'd crush her into the ground. "...After all, what do you weigh? A hundred pounds - at a stretch?"  
  
"One ten." She replied confidently, smiling, half in relief as he reached a hand out to the car bonnet to stabilise himself.  
  
"Okay, lets just pretend that's my weight to." He said to her, finding his footing on the pavement. "Gracias." He dismissed the valet as Nina handed him the keys - he had no money to tip the man with.  
  
-24-  
  
When she heard the shower stop running Nina decreased her attention to the book she was reading, folding the corner over, marking her place lest she forget to later. Jack stumbled out of the bathroom a few moments later, clad in a pair of loose trousers that she may have seen before, holding a balled up wedge of black material in his hands. He tossed it at her as she shut the book and moved it onto the lightstand. It took her a moment to gauge the dampness of the shirt and she unraveled it, holding it up by the tips of her fingers before she dropped it off the edge of the bed. Jack had obviously had to blast patches of the shirt with hot water in order to remove the cotton from his wounds. She watched as he crossed the room to his suitcase and only stopped him when he hovered over the suitcase, letting out an almost imperceptible sound of pain.  
  
"Jack come here." She muttered, slipping off the bed and gripping his good hand lightly by the wrist. She tugged him towards the bed and he perched on the edge of the bed, he slid back onto it as she collected a bottle of iodine solution and a bag of cotton wool she'd laid out on the table ready to clean his wounds.  
  
"Is this all of them?" She asked, pulling open the cotton wool bag and sat next to him on the bed.  
  
"Just my back and this one of my chest." Jack replied. The wound on his chest was a torn bruise, it had already made itself a light layer of black scarring, and a cut followed the line of his collar bone across his chest. Nina pulled a palm sized lump of cotton wool out of the packet and tore a section off, covering the opening on the hydrogen peroxide bottle with it and turning the old brown glass upside down, soaking the cloth in the antiseptic.  
  
"This might sting." She whispered, gritting her teeth together and daubing the hydrogen peroxide soaked cloth at the cut. She sneeked a glance up at Jack's face, but his reaction was minimal, the cut was obviously closed, although he was watching her with a passive expression on his face - it made her uncomfortable.  
  
When she'd dotted a line of peroxide on the cut she tore the cotton wool and gave it a clean face, and then ran the wool along the length of the cut, keeping the pressure light so as to not to pull any blood clots. Jack shifted on the bed, and she paused, holding the piece of cotton stationary above his wound.  
  
Jack realised, belatedly that she'd stopped caring for his wound, and watched the frozen black mop of hair close against his chin. He gently nudged her into action, raising a hand to touch her elbow. She shot back, as if from a flame, resting herself on her ankles. Her gaze remained on his chest for a long moment before she lifted her eyes. "Uh huh?" She questioned.  
  
Jack didn't say anything, regarding her with an odd expression, which only served to make Nina feel more self conscious that she had done before. She pursed her lips and forced herself to move back onto her knees, taking the damp cotton with her once again and finishing with the first cut. "None on your legs?" She forced herself to ask, thankful she could think of some relevant conversation.  
  
She needed to talk to stop herself from obsessing about his body and proximity. It was attractive even given their current situation and his state, and she couldn't let him know. She finished with the wound. "Well my shins." He muttered, and then as she retreated back onto her ankles he painfully lifted a leg and pulled up the loose canvas material. There was a large bruise on one leg, but the other seemed ok. "But they're not too bad."  
  
Nina nodded, but slid off the bed and lifted his trouser leg again, squatting on the floor and using her folded knees as a table to examine the bruise for any scrapes. She changed legs, rubbing lightly around the bruises, knowing that the actual bruise extended far beyond what had shown itself in this limited amount of time. "Yeah, they look okay, I don't think the skin's broken." She informed him, levying herself up to the bed.  
  
"God bless the fetal position." He joked, smiling.  
  
Nina felt her heart swim a little as he smiled at her and gave him a soft, but gritted grin. Jack could read her pretty well, and he knew she was holding something back, even if he wasn't sure what it was. Most of the time he would leave her to her own devices and not mention it. "Yeah, let's do your back."  
  
  
  
Next chapter is NC-17, which I was going to post separately, but thanks to the new FF.net submission policy - I can't. God knows how they still find legit reasons to complain when the default browser setting filters them out, so kiddies aren't immediately blasted with them, when you can't put explicit stuff on the summary sheet, and when you get a little warning saying not to view if you are under 17 as you click it!!  
  
Argh! That chapter will be up at my new fanfic website - livelyaria.bravepages.com - It's not absolutely crucial to the storyline. I've made it as superfluous as possible, in fact - I'm only typing it for the fun of it. The next chapter should be up here soon, as the computer issues I had recently are finito. 


	12. Under the water

This was the first time she'd woken up since the start of the mission without that feeling that today was going to be trying. They'd completed their mission, they had the code key, and they had the documents. They just didn't _have_ them. The code key and computer documents were sitting on the bottom of the lake in the cadet training grounds. A quick glance at the ceiling and the sunlight strewn across it was in order, and once done, she grabbed a fistful of duvet cover and pressed it to her cheek, rolling over and using it as a pillow. The soft cotton stroked her skin for a little while, until Jack, in his sleep, chose to remind her of his presence, by reacting to the lack of duvet cover and tugged it away. Nina scowled as her jaw hit the mattress until she climbed into a sitting position and looked across the bed. A naked back lay beside her, a shoulder muscle spasmed - shocking her for a moment, and then settled into sleep again. Jack's pale tan skin was covered with tiny sparkling hairs; her growing nails had left scattered collections of lines across his skin, which added to the marks from the brutal beating he'd received the day before. The urge to reach out and fit her fingers into the grooves was there but she swatted it away, drawing her knees up around her chest, concealing her body with the padded duvet cover. She glanced over at the window. They hadn't thought to close the curtains last night, it hadn't been a problem in the pitch dark, and now she just didn't want to pull herself away from the warmth of the duvet and Jack's presence. She watched him again; he'd fallen asleep on his stomach, facing in the opposite direction. The tattoo on the arm furthest away from her was barbed wire, she was curious as to why he had no military tattoos, but he was asleep, and it wasn't fair to wake him just to ask. A hand reached out and touched it, before she realised she was even curious as to how it felt. Jack yawned, letting out an appreciative sigh as Nina continued her ministrations on his forearm. "Good morning." She whispered, when she realised she'd woken him. He rolled over, settling himself so he gave her the same amount of space she'd had earlier. He watched her for a moment and then sat up against the headboard, preoccupying himself with the covers around his hips. He didn't avert his vision from her, letting her settle next to him against the headboard. "Do we even really need to talk about this?" She asked him. She had a clear idea of the next few weeks for them in her mind. He'd avoid her; she'd avoid him - at least as far as casual banter went. When it came to work situations they'd act as professional as possible. But she knew now - she was sure he trusted her now, that he would let her in.finally.something she'd been hoping would happen ever since she'd started with him.  
  
"Depends on what you think should happen next." He stated. A hand rose from the duvet cover and he racked it across his face. Averting his face and covering it - he was usually exhausted before he showed such obvious signs of weakness. Apparently not here, she'd worn him out in a few minutes.  
  
There was dead silence for a few minutes. It itched them both. They could sit in companiable silence, but they both needed to have something to do, something to reflect on. Here they only had each other. They'd spent nearly 2 weeks sleeping in this bed together, and it had never been this awkward. Not even on the first night when all this crap hadn't even been there.  
  
Nina ran hands through her hair, smoothing it into something respectable. It had settled into layers during the night, depending on how much it had been jostled, pressed and stroked. She felt awkward with the action as she imagined his hands in her hair; she began the action languidly and hurried to finish it. She waited for Jack to speak.  
  
Jack rasped a hand around his neck and tapped a thumb to the pressure point on the side of his neck, below his ear, below his jaw line. It didn't work. His entire body was trained to accept that that single action would relieve pain. He'd depended on psychological training like that to get him through tough situations before. He was too diverted here. He waited for Nina to speak.  
  
Frustrated, Nina let out a sigh and threw off the covers, crawling out of bed and grabbing a towelling robe she'd worn before, it was strewn over her suitcase, and directly underneath it was her shower kit. She grabbed it and turned to Jack, intending to tell him she was going for a shower, but the words refused to come, and angry with him - she plodded into the bathroom and slammed the door.  
  
Jack winced as he heard the door rebound; it bounced off the door jam and back on itself. He heard the taps squeak, and the sound of running water, and then the pounding of water. She was having a shower.  
  
He covered his mouth with his face and let out a growl. He judged from her demeanour that she was angry with him, and he wanted to know why. She'd said to him last night that this was as much her thing as his. He hadn't pressurised her or forced her into it. Maybe she had a different idea for the now then? Maybe she thought he wanted to stop this? Pretend it never happened? He wasn't stupid. He hadn't risked this and expected to forget all the repercussions. He tossed off the duvet and slid onto the floor. He didn't bother with gathering a towel or any strewn clothing. He padded into the bathroom and pushed the door shut.  
  
Jack didn't bother calling her name, he could see her tiny form behind the shower curtain, and besides, she called his - just checking he'd shut the door, as though it would have been someone else. Wordlessly, still, he pulled open the shower, spilling water on the carpet. The door was only open for a few seconds, and to her credit Nina didn't shriek.  
  
"What do you think you're doing?" She criticized, wrapping her arms around her torso in front of her breasts.  
  
He grabbed her wrists and separated them from her body, pinning them to her side and backing her into the wall. "I think we need to talk about this. This isn't over." He slipped his hands down to her hands, encountering no resistance. He saw her swallow, the cartilage around her throat contracting and expanding as she pushed a bulbous of saliva down her throat.  
  
"Oh?" He could have sworn her heard her question.  
  
He shook his head in response, diving to one side of her nose to tease her lips and then the other side. It was when he tried it again that she wrenched herself free and grabbed him, wrapping an arm around his neck and a leg around his waist and pulling him closer to hell.  
  
-24-  
  
The car slid to a stop on the dry earth, Nina's car window was pressed close against the tree leaves, in order to keep the car out of the passage of light from the flood lamps above. It was their parking spot from a few nights ago, when they were caught in the base, but a short, surreptitious sweep of the exterior entrances to the base revealed no other entrances.  
  
Jack climbed out of his door and left it open, heading to the boot. He popped the trunk and began to strip his shirt off, undoing the waistband of his trousers to pull the shirt out, and then dropping his clothing into the trunk. He was left in his swimming trunks and shoes, the latter of which he tossed on the top. It was a simple matter of skills. He was a better swimmer than Nina, who emerged around the back of the car, having clamboured over the gear stick and stuck the door with minimal force. She rested against the side of the car as she spoke.  
  
"It's going to be cold."  
  
Jack nodded, he wasn't used to Nina wondering about him in a protective manner, she'd never known about his 'conferences' before, or if she had, she hadn't made her concerns obvious to him. He pulled a snorkel and set of watertight night-vision goggles out of the trunk, turning the goggles on and checking them, and then blowing forcefully down the snorkel. Nina turned to him again, stretching out a hand.  
  
Jack handed her the car keys, his goggles and snorkel, and gave the boot a resounding shove. It shut, and he retrieved his goggles and snorkel. Nina kept the car keys, rotating them in her hand and focusing on the black material. He clenched one side of his jaw and turned, heading into the forest.  
  
He didn't turn back to see if she hid herself well, he didn't want to worry about her - his focus right now had to be the on the 'Transparent Dancer' which he had to retrieve from the bottom of the lake. None of their interrogation had been on the painting, so he had no reason to expect they were missing it yet - after all, they'd only just inventoried that room, and from the looks of things, hadn't quite finished. With any luck no one had trawled the lake.  
  
He sneaked through a tiny shovelled hole in the fence and concentrated on making himself inconspicuous to training cadets - if any were out tonight. He would have loved a pair of infrared goggles, which would have provided him the ability to see body heat, and hence dogs and people - but he could only carry one, and so he'd gone with the night-vision goggles, which would let him see the painting at the bottom of the lake.  
  
He sprinted between trees, blending himself in as best as he could into the shrubbery, and eventually arriving at the edge of the large pond that he'd tossed their rucksacks into. He need his for the painting, Nina's was just a luxury.  
  
He slipped on the goggles and tugged the snorkel down over his face. He took a deep breath and jumped into the water, hoping that it would give him enough oxygen to at least make a proximal sighting of the bags, god knows people made enough noise surfacing from water.  
  
-24-  
  
A twig cracked behind her and she tensed, her eyes darted around her, watching the slight movements of lizards, the endless hum of mosquitoes. She was stood directly underneath a tree full of cicadas, and the sound was beginning to get deafening. She moved away from it, only to hear the sound liven up again. They'd most likely gotten used to her standing there. She didn't bother moving back, just moved to another, quieter tree. A bird flew into one of the upper branches, and a long gust of cold Atlantic air blew across her shoulders. She sniffed, and glanced over at the hole in the fence that Jack had crawled through minutes earlier. Then she looked back at their rental car. So far there was no sound that hugely alarmed her.like an alarm, but she was still on edge.  
  
The long Jack was the better the chances were of him finding the bag. But the better the chances of him getting caught. She gritted her teeth as her watch changed to 3:22am, the second hand making its way round the two as she finally charted the time on her watch. She closed her eyes briefly and shook her head.  
  
She tapped a foot on the dry ground for a few seconds until she realised it made a noise, and took in as quiet an exhausted breath as she could manage. After a few more seconds of watching the fence she turned back to the car, and suddenly became preoccupied with a dry piece of skin on the corner of her jaw. The tech agents had neglected to pack nail scissors for her, and the length was increasing. In the back of her mind she wondered about breaking the skin.  
  
Just as a watched pot never boils, so a watched fence hole is never jumped through - Nina heard her name being whispered as the sound of cracking twigs disturbed her already sensitive nervous stimulation system, and she ran to the car, only footsteps ahead of Jack, but she managed to flick the lock just as he tried the back door. Jack clamboured in the back, just as she settled into the drivers seat and reversed back onto the gravel leading to the Autovia. 


	13. Raided the finale

'Say you'll stay, don't come and go like you do. Sway my way, yeah I need to know all about you.' the faint sound of a melancholy singing made its way out of the bar and into the hotel lobby as the doors between the two opened and shut. Nina and Jack glanced occasionally at the room opposite them as they made their way towards their hotel suite, both making independent mental notes to come back down to the bar after they'd showered and changed. Jack pressed the button to call the lift, and glanced at the mirroring around the panel. He got a perfect view of himself, worn brown t- shirt with an embroidered horse on one corner, and a pair of green khaki shorts, with a buckle holding them pinned between his legs. He wore black strapped sandals on his feet, beneath his sandy legs, his legs felt tight, the hair appeared almost crystalline, probably from the salt in the sea water - there was still a layer of sand over his skin - he glanced down at Nina's legs - not a trace of sand, only streaks of white salt.  
  
The lift doors opened and he followed her inside, a curious smile on his face. She'd told the lift attendant their floor by the time he took his place at her side.  
  
In the reflective door of the elevator, Nina noticed Jack's smile and gave him a quizzical look. "What?" he queried, turning to her rather than talking to her reflection.  
  
"What are you smiling at?" she asked, sliding a thumb under her bag's strap and hoisting it further up her shoulder.  
  
"That too heavy?" he asked her - there were valuable items in that waterproof rucksack, and she couldn't drop it, it wasn't particularly heavy - so Nina had been carrying it, but Jack wondered if that was such a good idea now.  
  
"No it's fine." She replied, now happy with the position of the sack - "What were you smiling at?" She asked again, persistent.  
  
"You have no sand on your legs." He commented, and then turned back to face the lift doors, they were now more than half way to the floor with their suite on it.  
  
Nina let out a short laugh and then smiled. "I also don't have any hair on them." She pointed out, turning back to the doors just as they opened.  
  
Jack took a step out into the hallway, "And?" he queried with an accusatory look on his face. He led the way down the corridor to their room, pulling out his key as he walked.  
  
Nina scowled - how could he not see such obvious links. "So they're easy to brush off." she prompted, hanging over to one side of the doorframe as Jack slipped the key card through the magnetic lock.  
  
Jack smiled and nodded, making an obvious, appreciative glance down at her legs before he pushed the door open.  
  
They were greeted with complete and utter chaos - the furniture was upturned, the sheets ripped off the bed, the drawers open - the contents of their suitcases spread around the room. Their room had been ransacked at some point during the day - the perpetrators seemed long gone. It didn't look like anything had been broken, and by the sheer volume of clutter - it was unlikely that anything had been taken.  
  
"Oh God!" Nina muttered under her breath, she followed Jack as he took a few steps into the room and turned to survey their room. They'd left the door wide open. She glanced up at Jack, he was angry and weary - the expressions on his face far loud than the movements he made. "Do we clean it up? Do we even know what they were looking for - if they took anything?" She asked.  
  
"Silence." Jack whispered, but she heard it. She retreated into herself a second, and watched as he took a few steps to the other side of the room and turned on the hotel radio. Clicking it to the channel it had been on recently - the local classical network.  
  
He looked at her from across the room and then walked back to her. He wrapped her into his arms, and for a moment she felt consoled - until she realised it was a cover.  
  
Jack pressed his lips to her forehead, and then leant the distance down to her mouth to kiss her there, she responded, and then he pulled back, kissing the space in front of her ear. "Are you sure everything we have is in that rucksack?" he asked her.  
  
Nina had kept her eyes closed since the kiss to avoid any look of surprise. "Yeah." She whispered as she faintly nodded her head.  
  
"Good." He replied. "Don't open it - at all. There may be bugs in this room somewhere." He said quietly and to her ear. He pulled back and stroked her cheek - encouraging her eyes to open. "You okay?" he asked her, more audibly.  
  
She nodded before she responded verbally, and then looked around the room for something to start organising. She walked across the room to pull her suitcase out from underneath a dresser drawer. She would empty the contents and re-pack everything. She didn't want to pack something that would give away their location.  
  
-24-  
  
Nina watched as Jack chucked another drawer onto the bed - completing their little collection of hotel furniture that had been reorganised. They weren't going to stay here, they couldn't - they were going to pack their things, go to the airport and get a flight back as soon as possible.  
  
Everything was in their bags, save a clean set of underwear so that she could shower, something she was about to mention to Jack. He was angry right now though, and she didn't want to reveal any intention to him, other than to help in his effort to protect them from the Spanish Military.  
  
She took a step towards him, clutching her underwear in a hand. She swerved to let him swing around with another drawer and he stopped, noting her sudden movement, and how close he had come to swiping her. "Sorry." He muttered.  
  
"S'okay. I need a shower, I want to get this sea salt and sand off of me." She explained.  
  
Jack nodded, looking around the room and eventually back at her. He smiled lightly, realising how easy it was to slip into personal contact again, and leant forward, kissing her passionately. It was hard not to become aroused by her response, as she gripped his shoulders and clung to him, not breaking away until after he did. "I'd join you.but I should be in here in case they decide to join us again." He replied.  
  
She nodded, and balled up her underwear in her fist. "Ok." She responded with a cheeky grin - annoyed that she didn't have either company or enough time in the shower.  
  
-24-  
  
Jack tapped his flight information on the customer service desk as he waited for the young, blonde, obviously American assistant to finish typing the details into the computer from the previous visitor to the counter. Nina stood beside him, and just next to her, the trolley with their belongings on it. He had an arm around her back, and she had both of hers gripping the trolley handle, except the occasional touch to his forearm.  
  
"May I help you?" the woman asked. She'd quickly assessed them as being British or American, and made a quick language assessment.  
  
"We'd like to move our flight back to the earliest possible flight." Jack responded, impatiently.  
  
The woman nodded, fiddling with her tight hair-do. "Certainly sir." She began, her free hand tapped the keyboard, and she continued when her other hand was out of her hair. "May I see your tickets."  
  
Jack flattened the tickets on the counter and slid them across to her. She let out a soft smile at no one in particular and opened the small airline ticket wallet - retrieving the information out of the wallet and typing it into the computer.  
  
"Right, sir - your tickets are open ended, so I am able to put you on the next available flight back to Los Angeles without any charge." She began, as she scrolled through a list of data on the screen. "Unfortunately all the flights to Los Angeles are full for this morning."  
  
Jack glanced at Nina, she looked dubiously at the agent. ".and this afternoon." She reported. "I can check tomorrow for you if you wish." She informed him.  
  
Jack nodded, and then felt Nina squeeze his arm. He smiled at her as though nothing was wrong and let her stand ahead of him at the counter. She heard his voice as she looked around the room. "Can you get us a flight to Great Britain?" She asked her.  
  
"London?" The assistant queried, not looking at Nina, focussing on her control panel.  
  
Jack noticed the cause of Nina's concern. The periodic patrol of military officers made its way around the airport, Jack searched the group, trying to ascertain if there was anyway he'd seen any of them before - trying to be as innocuous as possible.  
  
"Or Manchester, Leeds, Exeter, Edinburgh." Nina prompted.  
  
He caught the woman nodding out the corner of his eye, and Nina leaning against the counter. "I can put you on a flight to London - Gatwick.departing in an hour - you'd have to board immediately." She told them. "But we would have to charge you for the detour in England."  
  
"That's fine." Jack piped up. "And you can terminate our tickets there, we won't need passage to the US from there." He stood squarely behind Nina, and placed a hand on one side of her, the other around the handle of their trolley.  
  
He heard Nina breathe a sigh of relief and he stroked her back before tugging her to him and kissing her forehead - after all, they were still married. The assistant typed on the keypad in front of her, making all the necessary plans to get them out of the country quickly, for reasons she had no idea existed.  
  
He held Nina fast against his chest and breathed as she did - her out, his in and vice versa, maintaining the small space between them and the counter without pressing her against it. He held his breath as he saw a military agent walk along behind the assistant, excusing himself in his native tongue. "Okay, that's all sorted for you - boarding at Terminal 43."  
  
Jack nodded, "Wait." Nina began, "Don't we have to check our bags?" She queried.  
  
He idly wondered if she was considering checking the painting and putting it in the cabin hold.  
  
"I can do that here for you if you like." The hostess offered, they nodded, and watched as Nina moved the cases onto the belt, ready to stop her if she lifted the painting, ready to say: "Darling, let's carry that - it might break."  
  
-24-  
  
As it happened, she didn't put it on the painting on the belt, so he didn't have to stop her. She'd left it on the trolley, and then after the ticketing woman had labelled their baggage Jack had picked it up and hoisted it over his shoulder, and then they relinquished the trolley to an attendant and Jack had stood on the opposite side of Nina to her handbag, placed a hand on the small of her back, and guided her towards the end of the row of customer service assistants.  
  
They'd stopped at a payphone on the corridor to the boarding gate and placed a phone call to an un-named number that Jack knew to be British Intelligence, pretending to have a casual conversation, but placing in all the code words and requesting somewhere to stay for the night and passage on the next available flight to the US from an allied base.  
  
The plane had finally left Spanish Air Space, and Jack finally felt he could relax. Nina was tentative only until he was, and managed to settled down not long after her soothing motions on his arm began to take effect. She leaned in. "I take it we're okay now then."  
  
His entertainment system was plugged into the channel displaying the passage of the plain. Hers was simply off, a copy of Louis Bris' "Wisdom of the Crocodiles" sitting open, face down in front of her.  
  
"Yah." He replied, offering her a soft smile like he had done many times in the last half hour. This time it held no strain, no false sensibilities - the Spanish authorities no longer had the jurisdiction to force the plane to land. He shrugged his arm free of hers and stood, walking out of his seat and opening up the overhead lockers, checking the bag for the presence of the hard drive and painting, all was intact, all was present. "We're fine." He whispered, taking his seat once again.  
  
The plane was dark - it was a night flight, and so as a matter of courtesy, the default position of the cabin lighting was off. The flight was only three hours long, but many patrons had chosen to sleep for a while - leaving specific instructions to the air hostesses and their computers, phones and other equipment to wake them in a short period. Jack could count the number of lights that were on in the first class cabin with one hand.  
  
Nina smiled, coolly, and shifted in her chair, phaffing with the blanket, and pulling her hand out again to grasp his. He accepted it, and then tucked it away, rifling in her blanket for the other one until she realised what he was looking for, and produced it herself. Jack ran his thumb along the engagement and wedding ring coupled on her finger. She squinted at his movements until she caught his eye, and then placed a kiss on his eyebrow.  
  
Jack laughed and pulled her into a more passionate embrace. "Mrs Archer." he muttered, pushing the handle to the upright position between them, and scooping a hand under arse to pull her onto him. Breathless and aroused a few seconds later he took a quick look around the cabin. The six awake passengers had all averted their eyes - if they'd been looking originally - and he pulled her ear close. "You know I always wanted to join the mile high club."  
  
She laughed. "You know, the density of the air aside, I've always postulated that the effect on orgasm at several thousand feet is always more intriguing because of the adage that goes with it."  
  
Jack used the arm he had trapped under her legs to push her off his lap and into the isle. "Shut up." He growled at her, and then, with a hand between her shoulder blades, he led her towards the first class toilets at the front end of the plane.  
  
"Reckon the pilots will be able to hear us?" She queried. Jack just gave her a look. "What? Do you want me to be quiet?"  
  
-THE END-  
  
Yep - 'hell' wasn't supposed to be a typo - it was deliberate. Who better to call you to hell than good ol' Nins? In case you didn't catch the drift - they fly to the UK and go to one of the American bases and catch a military jet back. Hope you enjoyed the far-too-long ride. Sorry :-D 


End file.
